


Interpreting the Will of the Gods 2/2

by pollybywater



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 21:45:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollybywater/pseuds/pollybywater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have no idea how to summarize this, tbh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interpreting the Will of the Gods 2/2

  
Interpreting the Will of the Gods, 2/2

*

"DanielJackson, you wished to speak with me," Teal'c reminded, hoping his dark glare was enough to stifle O'Neill's automatic protest. Fortunately for O'Neill, it worked, and Daniel's gaze turned towards Teal'c. He was inwardly staggered by the clarity in those deep blue eyes and felt immediate sympathy for O'Neill's fascination.

"I need to apologize to you, Teal'c, and Sam, too, for the way I left the SGC. I'm sorry."

Amused, Teal'c smiled.

"Your apology is unnecessary, but accepted, Daniel."

Daniel grinned back. Teal'c was aware of O'Neill's curiosity, but, remarkably, O'Neill held his tongue.

"Thank you," Daniel said. "Have you had an opportunity to review Benin's Prophecies?"

"I have. The Mother City provided translations."

Actually, Teal'c had read over them three times since O'Neill had spoken of them: once in the language of the false gods, once in 'modern' Ancient, and once in the Ancient in which Benin had written them, just to compare the linguistic drift. Teal'c had paid attention to DanielJackson over the years. He was paying attention now when the Regestere Charus spoke.

"Then you know what I'm going to ask you, Teal'c of Chulak. Will you stand with me at Dorandas?"

Teal'c rose, coming around the table, waiting for Daniel to rise before going to one knee - not both, not the way the false gods had demanded - covering his heart with one clenched fist.

"As I stood with you in Hell, Regestere meus. It would be my privilege and honor," Teal'c swore, bowing his head, barely hearing O'Neill's harshly sucked in breath. Daniel's hand was on his face and heat was spreading throughout his entire body from that gentle touch. The aches and pains and malaise he'd suffered since ridding himself of his prim'ta and turning to JanetFrasier's tretonin were gone, all gone, and Teal'c felt strength and vigor like he had not known in seventy-five Tau'ri years.

Cock swinging hard and heavy beneath his robes, Teal'c leaned into Daniel's hand and shivered when Daniel's hand slid to his jaw and tilted his face up.

"Thank you, dear friend," Daniel murmured and kissed him on the mouth, searing him from the inside out when all that heat imploded, reached the limits of his skin and crashed back through his core. _"Yes,"_ Daniel whispered from within him, coiling the flames around his spine and burning down his nerves.

 _"Daniel! Daniel!"_ Crying out in his mind, immolated with pleasure, Teal'c shuddered once and climaxed, motionless while he shot into the thick material of his robes. Daniel's mouth moved against his - _"mine"_ \- and swallowed his low groan - _"my Teal'c"_ \- pouring even more heat through him when Daniel's mind echoed his orgasmic tremor, Daniel turning to light all around and within him.

And all he had to do was...

"Damn it, Daniel, I meant it! If you're taking Teal'c to Doranda you're taking me, too!" O'Neill shouted, aggrieved, latching his arm around Teal'c neck like he intended to anchor Teal'c to his body. It was only Teal'c's quick reflexes that kept them both from sprawling on the deck.

 _"Jack! Fine! On your own head be it, then,"_ Daniel said resignedly as their surroundings disappeared.

***

Atlantis prodded Rodney and John awake, informing them impatiently they could sleep later and wouldn't they like to be there to greet her newest Atlantean Ascendants, her Jaffa Ascendant ... and her Bellator ... with her Agapitos Daan. Besides, she needed them.

 _"You're kidding me. He's doing it? Go Daniel! Thanks for the heads up, sweetheart. You're right, we want to be there. Show us what you need?"_ He smiled up into John's face and watched John nod while he listened to Atlantis explain.

Ascending with John was addictive. Magical. Rodney took them out to the limits of the shields - he'd developed a fondness for it, loving the sense it gave him of hugging his City. John let him pour them into surrounding her until she glittered in the eternal darkness of space like a brilliant star, her spires and towers shining as she delicately stepped out of hyperspace to near their destination.

Between the two of them and Atlantis' own semi-ascended sentience, they had her primed, painted with light and power. Spreading himself in pure energy like lightning across her shields, Rodney lit up his entire City as she approached the place where Dorandas had been.

John was right there with him, adding sheen, polish, the pale gleam of pearls and depths of pure color. John was so beautiful. Sappy as it was for Rodney to think, John was even more so in his ascended form than in his body ... and that was saying something, in Rodney's opinion. He laughed at himself as Atlantis laughed with him.

God, he loved her, loved his City like he loved John. Sending a warning - _the City of the Fifth Race arrives!_ \- they kept station near the border of the rift, enabling Atlantis to prepare to direct her excess power into the 'hands' of waiting Ancients ... supporting their efforts at recreating a solar system with living planets that could subsist a population in what would be essentially Stone Age conditions.

The Wraith's bodies would be physically altered to be rid of their need to consume life forces from sentient beings, making them live by their digestive system like most humanoids. Rodney was rather hoping they'd end up vegetarians and wondered if he could make it so.

Then the flash and fire of his City's joy - _willing ecstatic ascension, my Meredith!_ \- surged through him as their Agapitos Daan rose up two more knights in his Legiae Lux. Two more of hers, two more Atlantean Ascendants, the City delighted in pointing out, letting John and Rodney help her funnel energy into the rift.

There was a lot of it. Every bit of it seared Rodney like coming, like flashfire, a pure rush of power that he poured into this thing he had made, this horrible mess, this failure.

Finally fixing it.

***

 _"Watch him, my Imperator. He will spend himself too freely out of guilt,"_ Atlantis warned John unnecessarily. He was already monitoring Rodney, making sure Rodney didn't add too much of his own energy into the radiant blast Atlantis was collecting from her newest Ascendants as they shed the boundaries of their flesh for the first time. John had the very clear sense that Daniel was watching over Rodney, too, even as he shepherded O'Neill and Teal'c into this next phase of existence.

That first initial surge slowly ebbed, leaving a steady, lower-level wash of power that Atlantis could easily handle by herself, so John collected a reluctant Rodney, anxious to see how Jack O'Neill was doing with ascension.

***

Jack was doing just fine, mind finally freed of the shackles the Ancestors and the Asgard had laid on him, consciousness freed of the limitations of his body. The glowing tentacles he had - that he'd so mocked on others - twined and wove with Daniel's and Teal'c's and he could feel everything that both men were, unmasked in this place where there was no flesh to hide behind, each luminous touch a gift and a pleasure.

They were floating, flying, swooping down corridors and making the City laugh. Teal'c's awe and wonder lifted them even higher as Daniel taught them McKay's trick of traveling inside Atlantis, who was lit up like a Christmas tree now that Jack could really 'see' her.

Before he could zero in and get a fix on what Daniel was feeling, Atlantis spoke to him. She welcomed her Bellator with a warm mental hug, congratulated him on making the leap, then offered the same to Magistere Teal'c, leaving Jack to wonder once again why he'd been so afraid of this. This was nothing like what he'd thought - it wasn't cold or emotionless or too Zen or any other weird shit. This was comfortable, feeling like part of Daniel, part of Teal'c, part of Atlantis, part of everything...

...and somehow anticipating Sheppard and McKay when they showed up, meeting them on a pier, the Arcturus rift in full view. Even - maybe especially - to ascended eyes, it was a sight that managed to be both terrible and beautiful, black edges of nonexistence containing an internal glow of creation.

McKay de-ascended without bothering to speak, still wearing Daniel's blue Vis Uban robes, standing with his back to the view. Although Jack hadn't been able to tell before McKay became physical, McKay looked tired. His face was pale, the skin beneath his eyes bruised.

Daniel wasted no time going to him, delivering a loud mental scold, wrapping tendrils of light around McKay that sank inside him like a transfusion, brightening his face and the aura Jack didn't want to admit he could now see.

 _"Rodney! Too much, and you hid it from us! Shame on you!"_

 _"He needed to do it, Daniel,"_ Sheppard said firmly, de-ascending at McKay's side, practically standing inside Daniel. Sheppard was also out of uniform and dressed much like Jack had been earlier, in jeans and a tee-shirt, which gave Jack hope that he could manage the same when the time came.

 _"He wasn't in any danger,"_ Sheppard was insisting before jumping like his ass had been pinched. "Ouch!"

 _"You let him go farther than I would,"_ Daniel answered and McKay huffed a mighty sigh.

"Hello, standing right here, perfectly fine now, thank you very much for your concern," McKay said, rolling his eyes. "The head butting portion of the evening is over. Let's move on, angels."

Despite himself, Jack found himself grinning at the mental images he was picking up from John and Daniel via Atlantis. John was flashing Daniel pictures - first of rams with his and Daniel's faces, locking horns, then he and Daniel standing back to back, Daniel with Farrah Fawcett hair, posing with his hands chopping the air before him...

Daniel de-ascended to stand in Sheppard's and McKay's arms. De-ascended _laughing,_ head thrown back and rich sounds rolling out of his throat like Jack had never heard. He didn't know Daniel _could_ laugh like that.

Longing to hear it with human ears, Jack invited Teal'c along and gave de-ascending a shot, so caught up in listening it took him a moment or two to realize he'd shown up stark naked.

"Shit," he cursed, trying to figure out how to re-ascend. It was already too late. He had everyone's suddenly rapt attention.

"Oh, so not. Naked looks good on you, General O’Neill," Rodney McKay said in an impressed tone, waving a hand at Jack that left him fully dressed. In his Class A's. "There, that's always hot, too."

"Oh, very funny, thanks, McKay," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "I resigned, hadn't you heard? Put me in what all the fashionable Fifth Race Atlanteans are wearing these days-"

"That would be skin, like you started out in," McKay informed him, stepping towards him and changing his clothes to what he'd wanted earlier: blue jeans, a gray tee-shirt, and sneakers. "Better? Shame to dress you. You're pretty hot ... for an old guy."

"Old guy!" Jack roared, outraged - then Daniel was laughing again, hanging onto Sheppard's arm and burying giggles in Sheppard's shoulder that Jack could still hear.

Daniel was _laughing._

And McKay was staring Jack in the eye, speaking inside his head in clear warning.

 _"Don't fuck him up. Don't make him feel sorry he's alive again. We'll make you sorry."_

 _"As will I, O'Neill,"_ Teal'c added silently, startling Jack, who'd almost forgotten his big Jaffa friend was standing there, too, dressed in the same Chulakian robes Teal'c had started out in, which naturally figured, Jack supposed.

"Hey, Teal'c's older than I am!" he protested out loud, wanting Daniel to keep laughing, loving the sounds Daniel made even while McKay's words were rattling around his skull. _Don't make him feel sorry he's alive._ Christ, is that what he'd done? _Don't fuck him up._ Jack wished he knew for sure how not to, somewhat comforted when the City promised she'd help.

"How old do you feel, Teal'c?" Daniel asked, eyes still creased with amusement. Teal'c bestowed upon them one of his rare wide smiles before bowing elegantly in Daniel's direction.

"No doubt, younger than O'Neill," he intoned, shooting Jack a sly eyebrow when Daniel grinned.

"You know, you can make yourself any age," Sheppard volunteered, putting one hand on the back of McKay's neck and reeling him back, closer to Sheppard and Daniel. McKay was visibly calmed by their touch, wide shoulders easing down off his neck and assuming a more normal posture.

"Watch this," Sheppard said and sort of just ... shimmered ... before solidifying into a body that was and was not at all familiar.

Standing hipshot in the same jeans and black tee he'd been wearing earlier, hair to his chin and still wild, Sheppard regarded them from a face unlined and spare, skin taut over sharp bones, pretty pink mouth curved in an unexpectedly sweet smile. He was wiry and lean, looked about seventeen years old, and might as well have had 'jailbait' tattooed across his forehead.

"Oh my god, don't do that, I feel like a pervert," McKay said, covering his eyes.

"Rodney-"

"No, I know what he means, John," Daniel murmured, cheeks a bit flushed. "When the Asgard showed up a few years ago with Jack's fifteen year old clone..."

He looked so obviously uncomfortable that Jack was a little shocked.

"Danny. You mean-"

"I looked and thought about it. He was you, Jack." Daniel shrugged. "John, please?" he begged quietly and Sheppard changed - into a woman. Tall, willow-slim, with small high breasts and tousled dark hair and vivid hazel eyes and the same pretty mouth ... John Sheppard as female definitely worked.

"Ah," Daniel said and nothing more. McKay dropped his hands and his jaw at the same time, apparently struck mute. Jack was kind of speechless himself, between trying not to look at Sheppard too hard - Christ, the way those jeans clung to those hips was criminal - and trying not to wonder if Daniel-

Atlantis clamped down on his brain like a sudden migraine.

 _"Be relieved the Agapitos Daan is too ... distracted ... to have caught your thought, my Bellator. He will perceive it as continuing evidence of your desire to emasculate him-"_

 _"I don't want to-!"_

 _"He will not believe you,"_ the City warned.

"Oh, we're going to have so much fun with this," Sheppard was announcing - in the kind of husky contralto that poured inside the ears and pooled warm in the low back - distracting Jack from Atlantis when he - she - linked arms with McKay and Daniel. "Wanna go play?" she asked, aiming sultry smiles at both men.

McKay audibly swallowed, his jaw moving like the words that wanted to come out were stuck in his throat.

"We don't have-" Daniel began. Sheppard tipped her face up and licked his chin. "Oh, well, ah, maybe we can make time," Daniel finished weakly when Sheppard's lips brushed over his throat.

McKay waved his free hand at Jack and Teal'c without ever once glancing in their direction and Jack figured out quickly they were talking between themselves where he - and Teal'c, probably - couldn't overhear.

 _"That is not so, my Bellator. Was it your wish to be less shielded, you would hear. The Jaffa Ascendant hears."_

Jack looked at Teal'c to avoid seeing the way Daniel smiled at McKay. He could tell what Atlantis said was true by the way Teal'c was grinning - _grinning_ \- at Daniel, McKay, and Sheppard, dark eyes gleaming with relaxed good humor.

"It's not me," he argued with the City under his breath, drawing Teal'c's sharp gaze.

 _"It is,"_ Atlantis insisted implacably, pinging a burst of energy in his direction that spattered off in invisible drops without ever touching him.

"I'm not doing that!"

"You are," Daniel said, standing right in front of him. Jack hadn't even seen him approach. His face had gone solemn and his eyes were sad, with no trace of the laughter he'd seen in them earlier. "It's a- oh, you'll hate this explanation, Jack -a representation of your wish not to care. Not to hurt. Not to have your heart broken again. Teflon, incorruptible, above it all ... the wish transubstantiated by ascension into an actual protective barrier.

"It's something else I didn't know we could do." Daniel sighed through his nose. "Impressive, really."

"But I heard you before, you and McKay and Sheppard. And I still hear Atlantis."

"And then you stopped hearing Rodney and John, and me, because you stopped wanting to. Just like that."

 _"'Just like you always do. You shut me out',"_ Atlantis relayed Daniel's next thoughts, her own silent voice conveying Daniel's sudden hopeless resignation.

"That's it, goddamnit," Rodney McKay muttered through clenched teeth just before he and Sheppard took Daniel away, leaving Jack standing there with his mouth open and Teal'c briefly closing his eyes.

"But I didn't mean to," Jack said weakly, staring down at the metallic deck of the pier.

"Perhaps that is the point, O'Neill." Teal'c rested a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Sit with me, my friend." Sinking to the deck in a pool of brown robes, Teal'c looked ready to kel'no'reem. Jack wasn't surprised when hundreds of pillar candles abruptly surrounded them, as yet unlighted.

"I can't sit like this," Jack griped even as he lowered himself to the deck across from Teal'c, startled to find the action painless, his knees bending flexibly. "Hey, I guess I can."

"Indeed. Has it not occurred to you that the body you now inhabit is new? Untouched? Fresh off the demonstration chamber floor?"

"The showroom floor, Teal'c," Jack murmured automatically. In fact, it had not occurred to him. The idea punched him like a fist to the gut.

He'd felt dirty for so very long, but the flesh in which he'd been defiled was gone, now. Dead. Shed like skidmarked underwear, surrendered, a cross slipped off his shoulder and dropped in the dust.

This body was new.

His _life_ was new. He wasn't who he was. Literally.

"Gratius meus, Magistere Teal'c," Jack said sincerely and ascended, lighting all Teal'c's candles as he turned into pure energy.

Fresh starts, new beginnings ... try, try again ... if you can't beat them, join them ... Jack asked Atlantis to direct him to Daniel.

***

 _"You can't just keep ... whisking me away from Jack every time things get rocky!"_

 _"Oh, watch. I think you'll find we can."_

 _"John."_

 _"Daniel, it's not like you couldn't have stopped us if you wanted to. And we aren't exactly holding you hostage here."_

 _"...ouch. Okay ... okay ..._ you're right."

They de-ascended in their room. John took back his usual form, but naked, glad when Daniel and Rodney joined him on the bed, bodies as bare as his. Somehow, he ended up in the middle this time, with Daniel in his arms and Rodney covering his back; John cheerfully indulged in having the primo real estate and pulled Daniel even closer to his chest.

"What do you want to do?" Rodney wondered lazily, big comforting hand stroking John and Daniel both, silently making it clear he'd back Daniel regardless.

"I don't know," Daniel whispered, sliding down just enough to tuck his head under John's chin. John planted a kiss on Daniel's silky hair and wondered what to say to that. As usual, Rodney beat him to it.

"I can't believe I'm saying this. Daniel, O'Neill's fucked up, but he loves you. He really wants to be with you. Give him some time to adjust. Ascension changes things. You need to keep an open mind."

"I can't believe you're saying this either, Rodney," Daniel murmured against John's collarbone, which tickled. John shivered. Daniel smiled into his skin, some of the tension easing from the long body pressed into his front as Daniel began to relax.

"I know! It's insane! Me, pleading Jerk O'Neill's cause. What is the universe coming to? Apparently, ascension has changed even me! Who'd a thunk it!" Rodney started waving one hand around, exasperated words puffing out over John's nape, Rodney's chest heaving against John's back. Daniel reached up and caught Rodney's hand, linking their fingers and resting their hands on John's thigh.

"You're a good man, Meredith Rodney McKay."

"Yes, yes," Rodney grumbled, licking a stripe over John's trapezius. "You're both lucky to have me and all that."

"You know, we really are," John volunteered, sliding a hand around Daniel's jaw and tipping Daniel's face up towards his with a silent question. Daniel grinned at him in complete agreement, vanishing into light and reappearing, nearly instantly, at Rodney's back. John rolled over, gave Rodney's groin a friendly nudge with his own, and sealed Rodney's mouth shut with his lips.

"Very lucky," Daniel whispered into Rodney's ear, reaching down to hold Rodney's cock in his hand with John's, pressing their swelling flesh together. John groaned down Rodney's throat and caught the guttural sound Rodney made when Daniel started moving his hand.

A few unhurried strokes had John breaking his and Rodney's devouring kiss so John could pull his head back and gasp for breath. Daniel was sucking a mark on Rodney's shoulder, his eyes closed and his hips slowly rocking, looking utterly content as he fondled them both. Rodney's eyes were shut, too, one hand on John's chest carding through the hair there, his other arm wrapped around John's shoulders, hips moving back and forth in the lazy rhythm Daniel had chosen to jack them in.

Consequently, John was the only one looking when Jack O'Neill abruptly appeared, hovering over the bed in his ascended form.

***

John went perfectly still in that predator-warrior way Rodney had learned to respect over the years, the one that warned of immediate, impending risk.

Despite really really loving where he was right now, Rodney didn't even wait to see what set John off before ascending and covering his lovers, ready to hurl lightning on their behalf before he recognized O'Neill's ascended form.

 _"Oh, it's you. Atlantis, relay?"_ Rodney requested, asking John and Daniel to stay where they were. He expected O'Neill would still be shielding and unable to hear him directly. Although O'Neill's presence didn't feel like it had earlier, as undesirably imprecise a descriptive as that was...

Hmm.

 _"That's not- she doesn't have to, okay, McKay? I'm not- I'm not-"_

 _"Jesus, O'Neill, you can't even think what you want to say? It's not like using your tongue."_

 _"We can't all be as good with our tongues as you are."_

 _"Don't mock me."_

 _"I'm not! Come on, just-"_ O'Neill's frustration boiled over. _"Stop assigning me the worst possible motives. Atlantis told me what you said. Take your own advice and keep an open mind, McKay._

 _"Look, I'm fucking jealous, okay? I admit it. I miss Daniel ... and he looks happy with you and Sheppard. It fucking kills me that I didn't even know how unhappy he was and maybe I didn't want to know because that would have meant I'd have to stop hiding behind- You think I'm not kicking myself? I don't want to hurt him any more."_

 _"Stop, stop, stop."_ Rodney couldn't stand it anymore. Yes, O'Neill was kicking himself. That was a frame of mind with which Rodney had far too much experience, prompting him to offer something he never would have considered while corporeal.

He wrapped himself around O'Neill and gave him a big old ascended hug.

***

For just a second, Jack thought he was suffocating for air he wasn't currently breathing, then the heat and light and energy that was Rodney McKay's ascended self surrounded him and buoyed him up. Reluctant and surprisingly sympathetic affection blasted through him. If he'd had a head he would have been shaking it as decades of cobwebs blew loose to let in some inspiration.

 _"Rodney, I've got an idea,"_ he said, and _"trust me."_

 _"Yeah. Welcome back, Jack O'Neill."_

***

The man that de-ascended with Rodney to join them on the bed was recognizably Jack O'Neill, but not the one aged by personal tragedy then weathered and silvered by the Stargate program. This Jack O'Neill was in his mid-to-late twenties, with a head full of almost-blond hair, acres of silky tanned skin, and muscles that just would not quit. He was also beautifully naked.

Daniel forgot how to breathe, too busy staring. Jack had taken Rodney's place between him and John. Rodney was at Daniel's back, supporting him - and keeping him from going anywhere, not that he could. Jack was staring right back at him, with a hopeful smile that slowly grew when Daniel was unable to stop looking. Wide, furred chest tapering to ridged belly, narrow hips, long, strong thighs, and...

 _"Holy mother of god,"_ John said it for all of them and started to scoot back. Jack reached behind him and grabbed his arm, pulling it around him and making John stay. Poor John was obviously considering just ascending, when Rodney levered up on one arm, reached over Daniel and Jack both, and whapped John on the side of the head. "Ow!"

"Relax. O'Neill has an idea, let him run with it."

Daniel wasn't sure if Rodney was telling John or him, but quickly decided it didn't matter. Not when Rodney had him shoved into grabbing Jack to keep their heads from colliding, his hands suddenly full of Jack's beautiful, naked shoulders.

"Breathe, Daniel," Jack said, mere inches away. Jack's smile widened, his dark eyes glittering. "This is me before I went to Iraq."

Daniel did breathe then. Gasped, in fact, because Jack was practically beaming, so proud of himself for coming up with a workable solution that Daniel couldn't help but smile back and hope he didn't look too amazed.

Behind him, Rodney laughed, a low dirty chuckle that made everybody on Atlantis stop and grin. Daniel could feel it along with their City's delight; Atlantis was well satisfied by her Fifth Race Ascendants, pleased by the way they valued their humanity. She could rely on that. It meant she'd never be abandoned for their altered states of consciousness. Never have to suffer another ten thousand years at the bottom of the ocean. Alone.

Never alone. Never again.

Neither was he. It was starting to sink in.

Daniel slid one hand up the side of Jack's neck and buried his fingers in thick, soft hair, holding Jack still so he could taste that gorgeous smile, licking over an unexpectedly lush lower lip.

"You're so beautiful," he said for the pleasure of moving his mouth over Jack's. "I love you at any age, but you are incredible like this."

 _"Teal'c reminded me. New body. And Shep- John and Rodney helped me get a clue._ New body, _Danny. Give me a first time worth remembering?"_

 _"Jack. Jack, yes,"_ was all Daniel could think, deepening their kiss as the world fell away.

***

 _"That's our cue,"_ John informed Rodney and ascended them, thinking it was time they checked in with Elizabeth, Lorne, and Radek.

And the SGC.

John couldn't wait to tender his resignation. Judging from Rodney's answering snicker, neither could he.

***

 _"Please don't ask me if I'm sure."_

 _"I know you're sure. I can feel it. Jack, just because you- it doesn't mean the memories are-"_

 _"I know, but it makes me feel better about letting you touch me."_

 _"Wow. That's. Really honest."_

 _"Damn it, Daniel, you're taking it wrong. Don't you get it? This body has never been- it's clean. It's- good enough for you to touch, that's what I mean ... no, Danny, no, don't do that. Don't cry."_

 _"I never thought of you as dirty, Jack."_

 _"But **I** did. And I couldn't get past it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for putting you through-"_

 _"No! No more apologies. No more!"_

 _"Hey, Atlantis. Tissues? Thanks. Here, blow, ya big baby. You're supposed to be making love to me, not blubbering all over me ... no more tears, okay? No more. I love you, Daniel."_

 _"I didn't know how much."_

 _"Believe it."_

 _"I do. I just can't believe..."_

 _"Me? I can't believe me, either, but it's like McKay- Rodney -said, this is just thinking. It's easier than talking. Let me thank you?"_

 _"What? Oh! Jack! No, you don't- sto-ahhh!"_

Jack slid down Daniel's body and rubbed his face against Daniel's half-erect cock, pushing his nose into curly tickling hair and inhaling Daniel's scent. Daniel had gone still against him, trembling when Jack put his hand on Daniel's hip and rolled him to his back, so Jack could kneel between Daniel's legs - with no knee pain, how cool was that - and reach his objective.

 _"I've never done this,"_ he thought, meaning the position and so much more, because in every way that mattered it was the truth. He'd never done it as an act of love, never for the pure want of it, but his mouth was watering, now, anxious for Daniel's flavor on his tongue. Daniel was shaking, his mind so staticky with dread and arousal and need and fear that Jack couldn't pick up any actual words, Daniel being about a heartbeat away from sheer panic.

 _"Danny, relax. I'm all right, I promise. Come on, deep breaths. We're both all right, can't you feel it? I love you, Danny. Let me love you. I'm not scared. I'm not gonna freak out. You are. Settle down before you get McKay and Sheppard back here."_

Amazingly, Daniel laughed at this. Jack felt a sense of accomplishment that would have been a real ego-boost if he didn't know how close Daniel also was to either hysteria or ascending.

 _"Regestere meus, be at ease. Allow yourself the comfort of your Kalach Cal Mah, your Chosen One, your beloved, our Bellator. No harm shall come, my word on it."_

For a moment, Jack resented the City's vigilant attention, then the sweet comfort of her calming influence reached into him ... after all, Atlantis had been bred into his bones even before he ascended. He couldn't help but respond and be glad for her help when Daniel began to relax.

Jack slid his hands up Daniel's sweaty chest, admiring the cut of his pectoral muscles and the way Daniel's nipples stiffened against his palms when he brushed over them. Daniel made a noise in the back of his throat and arched into his hands.

Jack felt Daniel's beautiful cock twitch and grow. It made him smile.

"I think we'll just start all over, Doctor Jackson, and this time, you'll lie here and take it, understood?" Jack ordered, waiting for Daniel to smile back before kissing him again.

***

 _"All is well with the Agapitos Daan, my Meredith, my Imperator. Be not afraid."_

 _"Thank you, sweetheart,"_ Rodney thought, feeling it when Daniel settled back into his skin. It was still lovely to have confirmation from their City.

He and John were in the Gateroom, trying to decide - and bickering over - whether or not to go to the SGC and resign in person or just open a wormhole and fire through a transmission. Rodney was all for showing up ascended and telling the SGC to fuck off and die in person, while John - and Elizabeth - insisted on a more diplomatic approach. Atlantis herself was of two minds - she understood her Meredith's desire very well, she informed him smartly. Then she asked what course of action he thought his Agapitos Daan would prefer, which promptly ended that argument for Rodney.

"Atlantis. Please prepare formal letters of resignation for Colonel John Sheppard and myself, affix our electronic signatures, and transmit to the SGC. Inform the SGC, the IOC, and the leaders of each member country that Atlantis, the City of the Fifth Race, declares independence on this day - what day is it on Earth? Heh. Tell them Day One, Year One of the Empire of the Agapitos Daan - with a formal Constitution to follow at a date to be announced later, after Atlantis and her citizens assist the Alliance of the Five Great Races in freeing the Pegasus Galaxy of the Wraith ... and ... copy the Declaration of Independence to each Alliance world, sweetheart."

"By your command, my Meredith. My Imperator?"

"That's probably as diplomatic as I'm going to get," Rodney warned John, still wishing he could lob a few lightning bolts at the SGC and thinking 'let's see who feels exiled to Siberia now'. John wasn't disagreeing; inside, he was rolling with laughter and wishing he could be there to see Hank Landry's and the President's faces. They'd be lucky if the Daedelus didn't show up shooting at them.

"Confirmed, Atlantis," he said out loud for the record, managing not to snicker, watching Rodney's eyes dance. _"Daniel's gonna kill you."_

"Rodney. John," Elizabeth protested wearily and gave an audible sigh.

"Elizabeth. Every word is the absolute truth. I know you think John and I are being brainwashed by the City, Daniel Jackson, or both. I know you're having a hard time believing in what's been happening here. It's all rather mythic and sci-fi-fantasy-ish, isn't it? I also know that you've been affected personally by, ah, certain unavoidable side effects of the galaxy-wide transmission Atlantis made earlier to encourage fertility, so to speak - and that may be affecting your perspective."

Elizabeth's pale face went pink and her gaze narrowed as she glowered.

"How do you know? How do you know all this, Rodney?"

"Atlantis tells me everything." Rodney reached out and took Elizabeth's hand, startling John with his unexpectedly patient understanding. "Atlantis tells us everything, because I am her Meredith and John is her Imperator and Daniel is her Regestere Charus, her Agapitos Daan."

John watched Elizabeth translate the Ancient terms in her head before she tipped her head sideways and regarded Rodney with a faint smile.

"Rodney, what does Meredith mean?"

"It's Welsh, it means 'Sea Lord' or 'Great Lord'," John said when it became plain Rodney wasn't going to say, amused when his City told him. "Atlantis was going to call him her Praetor, but Rodney thinks it sounds too much like classic Star Trek."

"It was so," Atlantis said with audible humor. "When I learned the meaning of my Meredith's name, and finding it aesthetically pleasing, I chose it for his title when he would not, as I chose for the Agapitos Daan."

"Then ... Rodney ... you're..."

"Running Atlantis? Atlantis is running herself, Elizabeth. Look, our place here, aside from the usual stuff we do that we aren't going to stop doing and we don't want you to stop doing your usual stuff, either, is to do whatever Daniel wants us to do. Because he is the Agapitos Daan, the Regestere Charus of whom the prophet Benin spoke and this is Year One of the Empire. In ten-thousand years that's how it will be remembered. We need you to accept it and continue as our citizens' Administrator. They - the citizens - will need you. Things are going to get busy. Er. Busier."

"Is this what Ascension has done for you, Rodney? You've always been a passionate man, but this..." Elizabeth laughed a little under her breath before smiling at Rodney and shaking her head. "Of course. Thank you. My Meredith."

Charming John all over again, Rodney blushed, very pink against the blue robes he'd come to prefer. John had de-ascended in BDU's, having had no wish to dishonor the Air Force for the last few minutes he was going to be in it. Now that Atlantis had sent their transmission through the gate, he changed - right there on the spot - back into a tee-shirt and jeans.

Elizabeth gasped and Rodney's bright eyes went wide.

Huh. He might have been naked there for a second or two, John realized.

***

Lya walked in smiling at her and Samantha shook her head, feeling decidedly unworthy of the Nox woman's warm regard.

"I've been stupid. Selfish."

"You are ... how is it said ... merely Tau'ri, Samantha," Lya said, her face still wreathed in that lovely, serene smile.

"Only human," Samantha corrected, surprised to find she was smiling back.

"Ah," Lya said and sat next to her, peering over her shoulder to see what she was holding - the flatscreen data panel that held Benin's prophecies along with real-time updates Atlantis was apparently beaming over.

"Daniel ascended Teal'c and General O’Neill," Samantha found herself reporting, not sure how to feel about that, caught between jealousy and the realization that she wouldn't have deserved ascension if Daniel had offered it to her. "I hated Daniel for being who Jack wanted," she admitted roughly, the honest words like bones in her throat as she turned away from Lya's beautiful clear eyes. They saw too much, pulled too much out of her that she didn't want to talk about, but being around Lya felt like being in a confessional. "I haven't been much of a friend for a long time."

Lya took the data panel, set it aside, and wrapped her warm fingers around Samantha's, giving a little tug so Samantha had to look at her again. Lya's sweet face had gone solemn, but tenderness and humor still lingered in her gaze.

"The gift of mortal time goes unrecognized when you are so young. Consider, Samantha, that who you were yesterday does not have to be who you are today. The past is always beyond your control. Where you are now is the only time you can affect. Ordinarily," Lya added, her lips curving once more. "Understand, too, that Daniel cannot fault you for prizing Jack O'Neill so highly."

Face heating, Samantha found herself clutching Lya's fingers convulsively.

"How you must laugh at us."

"No, my dear. I rather think all the Old Races envy you Tau'ri your youthful passions," Lya said with low, lovely laughter as she squeezed back firmly and gave Samantha something to hold onto.

***

His cock was halfway down Jack's throat and Jack was swallowing. Daniel was pretty sure he was crying again - sobbing with pleasure - but couldn't help himself, keening when Jack pulled off then did it again, taking him deep, then deeper still, Jack's tongue enthusiastically stroking over every bit of flesh it could reach. He could feel how much Jack was getting off on doing this to him; Atlantis was making sure he knew, as if he wasn't feeling it directly from Jack.

Jack was also making sure, thinking a constant commentary at him which included how good Daniel tasted and how well he fit Jack's mouth and how much Jack loved and wanted him. All of him.

Funny, Daniel could hear it all and accept it intellectually; he could feel it all, and judge it true, yet he could not manage to believe it deep down in the heart of him, the part that survived death and ascension. That part felt like ... riprap at the bottom of a drainage ditch, the smooth flow of water interrupted by rough-edged rocks, slimed green with algae, cemented in with muck and mire. Immovable.

 _"I think you've forgotten how good I am at explosions,"_ Jack warned Daniel out of his brief distraction, slid slick fingers up his ass to his prostate, and proved it.

***

"Brace yourselves," Rodney said City-wide before he grabbed John's hand and ascended them, just in time for Atlantis to go _fawhump_ again and direct another big zero point energy dump into the Arcturus rift, enough to jump-start a brand new sun.

 _"Wow,"_ John thought a little incoherently, mentally clinging to Rodney as the blast of sheer pleasure burned through them. _"Guess O'Neill's getting it right."_

 _"Looks that way. My god, he's strong."_ Rodney meant Daniel, John knew, seeing for himself - now that he could - as the brilliant light of Daniel's unfettered power blazed across their ascended landscape. _"He's even stronger with Jack."_

 _"Don't kid yourself, Rodney. Daniel was hitting those high beams before Jack O'Neill came around. He hit them with you."_

John wished they were physical merely because he would have liked to see the blush on Rodney's fine, fair skin ... then he decided to take advantage of his current state and slide himself in between Rodney's photonic molecules. John sank inside Rodney every way that he could, sharing everything, even his private thoughts, where he was deeply proud of Rodney for being the friend to Daniel Jackson that Rodney was - even though he'd been jealous as hell about it at first. He was over that now since coming to know Daniel. Daniel needed all the love he could get and Rodney kept right on proving the Beatles wrong by making so much more love than he would comfortably take. He'd turned out to be a virtual reactor, his warm emotions heating John through and through.

John expected he'd be coming if he were in his skin.

 _"I love you, too,"_ and thank god, Rodney believed him.

***

Basking in the power sheeting off her Imperator and her Meredith, Atlantis effortlessly channeled the outflow, making sure the Ancients in the rift weren't overwhelmed. Terraforming should be underway.

***

"Time for glowy business?" Jack said into the taut skin of Daniel's belly.

"Just so, my Bellator. My sincere apologies for the timing, my Agapitos Daan."

"It's okay, Atlantis. We'll have time later. _Won't we, Jack?"_

 _"All the time in the universe, Danny."_

It wasn't like Jack hadn't got his, having found himself where McKay had been earlier: so fucking turned on inside his own head from what he was doing to his lover - so fucking _attuned_ \- that when Daniel climaxed in his mouth Jack found himself coming, cock untouched. He'd come hard, too, with the kind of ear-ringing intensity he usually associated with being buried balls-deep in Daniel's ass; so caught up in Daniel's pleasure that he was practically linked into Daniel's nervous system, Jack drank down every spasm and flew to pieces with Daniel.

Ascension made all this possible, even though he and Daniel had remained in their bodies. Barely. And Jack still wasn't ready to stop touching Daniel's beautiful skin, stroking chest and arms and thighs.

 _"John and Rodney?"_

 _"Stand ready to proceed at your command, Charus meus."_

 _"Hmm. They feel a little busy to me."_

Jack lifted his head in time to see the wicked smile curling Daniel's lips. Daniel lay flat on his back as if exhausted, arms flung out to his sides and eyes closed. He chose that moment to lift his lids halfway and regard Jack across the plain of his own chest, blue eyes dark and slumberous.

"Ascended sex is good. Not better than what just happened here."

"You'll have to show me some time," Jack said comfortably, as if his orgasm hadn't left his brain dribbling out his ears.

Jack hadn't realized how much of himself he'd typically held back every time he made love to Daniel. Until he stopped. Was stopped, he amended, trying to be honest with both himself and Daniel, thinking about Atlantis and Rodney McKay, lessons and demonstrations.

 _"Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks."_

 _"It helps that you want to learn,"_ Daniel thought back, smiling as they ascended. Happy. Jack could feel it all around him while he turned into light.

***

 _"Well, don't you look all shiny,"_ Rodney said to Daniel, pleased beyond words to see his friend so content. It looked like O'Neill had slain a few more dragons, so Rodney made a genuine effort not to think _it's about time!_ or call him Jerk any more.

 _"You could try calling him Jack, you know,"_ Daniel thought at him with silent laughter. Daniel really was blazing in Ascended terms, his bright form full of power that the scientist in Rodney could quantify and yet never explain.

 _"As you wish, my Agapitos Daan,"_ he said just to feel the sweet little buzz his words gave Daniel.

 _"'Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more',"_ Jack startled them all by quoting Shakespeare ... but Rodney wasn't a bit surprised when John picked up the verse and changed it to suit himself. Any man who chose Russian literature for recreational reading had to be more well-read than he liked to let on.

 _"Or close the wall up with our Pegasus dead."_

Teal'c chose that moment to appear, his ascended form a lustrous, steadfast glow. It occurred to Rodney that he'd been less than gracious - maybe even unforgivably rude - in not having spoken to the Jaffa Ascendant before now, and while he might not care on his own behalf, he'd never willingly fail Daniel. Atlantis naturally agreed with this reasoning; she hadn't let Rodney get away with fooling himself even back before she'd started speaking to him and she wasn't about to start now.

Very aware, suddenly, there would someday be a historical perspective on the events of this day, Rodney stepped into himself and bowed in Teal'c's direction, making sure Teal'c felt how sorry he was for that whole trapped-in-the-wormhole ordeal the Jaffa had suffered. Rodney had been of no help, which had galled him into learning every damned thing he could about the Stargate and was indirectly responsible for him being where he was today. Rodney still wished he'd tried harder, especially now, when the immense regard Daniel felt for Teal'c was so much a part of him, too.

 _"Magistere Teal'c, thank you for being here. You are always welcome. Our Matris Arxis reminds me, you, too, are an Atlantean Ascendant and a citizen. We're honored by your presence and thank you for your assistance."_

 _"The honor is mine, MeredithofAtlantis,"_ Teal'c said and bowed back - Rodney could feel it - Teal'c telling him he'd forgotten the unhappy event as soon as he'd heard DanielJackson laugh. _"Gratius meus. Ascension is a magnificent gift. I am grateful."_

 _"Very few deserve it more than you,"_ Rodney acknowledged, reaching out to share Teal'c's powerful sense of allegiance towards Daniel, sighing deep inside as it washed over him. He was starting to get it, why people behaved the way they did, all the stuff that he never got before because he couldn't see what was really behind their facades. The stuff he'd thought he was incapable of feeling, of inspiring, of _aspiring to. "Thank you, truly."_

 _"It is I who must again thank you, MeredithRodneyMcKay, and you as well, ImperatorJohnSheppard."_

John was taken aback by Teal'c's form of address but decided he liked it, letting Rodney in on his private, geek-to-geek glee.

 _"Master Teal'c. I've been thinking about how to protect Daniel while we're in the rift. I'd like General O'Neill-"_

 _"I've been naked in bed with you, John, I think you can call me Jack."_

 _"... Jack. I want you with me. We'll go first."_

 _"Do you fear an attack by disaffected Ancients in the rift, ImperatorJohnSheppard?"_

 _"Let's just say it wouldn't exactly be out of character."_

 _"We won't let that happen."_ Rodney's mental voice was firm. _"This is how Atlantis wants it, Daniel,"_ Rodney added when they felt Daniel begin to protest.

 _"That won't leave any Ascendants with the City-"_

 _"It's not like we can't be back here almost immediately-"_

 _"With respect, my Meredith, my Agapitos Daan, this I may remedy,"_ Atlantis said and showed them.

***

How she'd ended up sobbing in Lya's arms was abruptly no mystery. Samantha trembled, sudden visceral needs sparked by holding the smaller female body pressed against hers. Oh, God, she missed Janet so damned bad. Hated herself for never taking that chance with her friend; hated Jack and Daniel for having made the leap she wouldn't, hated herself for ever pretending that Jack was what she really, truly wanted.

What she'd been doing was hiding from herself because she'd loved Janet, been in love with her, wanted her ... and never let herself know for this very reason. Knowing it now was killing her with fresh grief, tearing harsh sounds out of her throat in hard shudders that she couldn't stifle, heart shredded with longing.

"Oh, my dear," she vaguely heard Lya say against her neck, her voice full of sorrow. "Matris Arxis, will you help me?"

"Consider it done, Amica Lya."

Then it was like being wrapped up in light, momentarily blinded as Lya moved away and the light condensed in her arms ... became an Ascended ... and then became flesh.

Known flesh. Beloved flesh.

She even smelled the same.

"Janet?"

"I'm here, Sam. Shh, honey, I'm right here," Janet said just before holding her, which was everything Samantha never let herself dream.

***

 _"Oh, now, come on. You've been showing us willy-nilly-"_

 _"To yourselves, my Meredith, and for your mutual benefit."_

 _"We could get some benefit out of-"_

 _"You are such a dog!"_

 _"Like you don't want to watch, too, John."_

 _"We really don't have time-"_

 _"You're right. We have company."_

Warned by Rodney, Daniel looked through their City's eyes and watched as a number of great black ships decloaked - it was the only term he could think of - all around, hanging like dark baubles off the perimeter of Atlantis' shields, right in front of them. Vast ships with outstretched wings, condors flying dark in the eternal night.

 _"Atlantis welcomes the representatives of the Farrah Lengharis."_ The Furlings, Atlantis explained to Jack, Teal'c, and John as she transmitted the words. _"It has been long since we shared space."_

 _"Too long,"_ deep bass notes thrummed through them, sent telepathically from the ship in the center of the formation. _"We are here to collect the Nox and assist in planetary defenses. We would welcome the Regestere Charus and party on board to converse as we disperse the Nox between our ships."_

Atlantis said trust them. John, Rodney, Jack, and Teal'c were none too sure, having been burned more than once by the strange aliens - but Atlantis knew the Furlings and Daniel trusted _her_ not to risk them. That the Nox evidently trusted them also spoke in the aliens' favor.

 _"We would be honored, thank you,"_ Daniel replied politely, not surprised when his companions kept him at the rear as they moved beyond their City's shields.

***

 _"Welcome home, Dynastaea meus,"_ Atlantis greeted the young prince when Shifu returned to the tactical center and updated the latest data, which she dutifully passed on to all stations, transmitting the same to the SGC as well as Shifu's presence.

Sixty-four percent of the combined Wraith fleet was on the move towards Dorandas. Another twenty-nine percent were still hibernating - these were the ones who would wake up hungry before getting underway - but between Ascended, Farrah Lengharis, Nox, and Asgard, there would be no culling. The first Wraith vessel would arrive within ten hours.

Atlantis was well pleased, and continued with her contingency planning.

***

Teyla awakened abruptly, feeling the City's mental nudge despite her exhausted - sated, delightfully sore, stretched, and well-used - condition. She lay naked on a pile of blankets on the chair room floor, blankets the City herself had transported in much earlier, along with food, water, and oil, before politely informing them she'd locked the doors and was jamming any surveillance.

Radek Zelenka's face was buried in her chest, his mouth so close to her nipple that his breath was teasing it taut. Evan Lorne was spooned up against her back, lax with sleep and puffing silent snores into one shoulder. Ronon must be right behind him, because Ronon's hand spanned over her waist, holding Evan between them.

She felt Ronon awaken seconds later, alerted by the brief tension in the fingers pressing into her skin.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Miles meus. Do not fear. I wish merely to speak with the Principessa of Athos," Atlantis said very quietly. The City's soft voice sounded to Teyla like it was full of smiles.

She was far too schooled to betray the shock of that chosen form of address. Ronon petted her anyway, his hand warm on her skin, keeping her grounded when the words fizzled along her nerves with little bubbles of pleasure that she tried not to enjoy too unduly.

"I do not think the title appropriate-"

"In the matter of titles, the Agapitos Daan himself bows to me, young Teyla. You may address me by name or as Matris Arxis."

"Your pardon, Matris Arxis. Mother City," Teyla explained quickly, aware Evan and Radek were now wide awake, as well. "How may I assist you?"

"On you sits operational command while my Meredith, my Imperator, and my Agapitos Daan are without my borders. They have gone with my Bellator Jack O'Neill and the Jaffa Ascendant, Magistere Teal'c, to meet with representatives from the Farrah Lengharis. Prince Shifu is in the maproom, that is, stellar cartography."

Radek had opened his mouth as if to speak; his lips briefly moved against her nipple. Teyla cleared her throat.

"Has something happened to Doctor Weir?" Evan asked, frozen at her back.

"Not at all. However ... how is it said? Citizen Administrator Elizabeth Weir is not the boss of me," Atlantis declared with audible laughter. Teyla's lips twitched. "Miles Evan Lorne-"

"Miles?" Evan questioned in a whisper.

"Soldier," Teyla translated.

"-or more correctly for my purposes, knight. Miles meus, my knight," Atlantis corrected amiably. "To you answers the military, Miles meus Evan Lorne. To my Physicum Radek Zelenka answer the scientists, but you two to the Principessa answer. My Meredith Rodney McKay has greatest faith in her judgment. And so it is."

The Mother City's words landed with visceral impact, clenching Teyla's insides from throat to thighs. She'd had no idea Rodney held her in such esteem. Hearing it like this, from Atlantis herself, was simply indescribable.

"Thank you, Matris Arxis, and please thank Rodney for me. Is there something you would have me do?"

"No more than what you are doing, unless I should call upon you. All is well with the citizenry." Shocked, Teyla heard the next words thought into her head. _"Principessa, at need, are you willing to take the prophesied place as the Athosian Ascendant? One of the Legiae Lux, loyal to the Agapitos Daan?"_

She didn't have to consider long. True, she barely knew Daniel Jackson. But John and Rodney did and she knew them. Neither would have given their trust lightly. Then, too, this was the City of the Ancients speaking directly to her - to _her_ \- like she, Teyla Emmagan, was an Ancestor, too. She'd read Benin's prophecies, too.

 _"I will go wherever I may serve."_

 _"So you will. Athos is blessed in you, nataea meus ... and your Athos will rise again to become a star in the Empire,"_ Atlantis promised, simultaneously taking away the bitter taint the Wraith had inflicted on Teyla's ability to speak so, by mind. It was a relief she struggled to breathe through, vaguely aware Ronon was holding her now, propping her up against his bare chest, so Radek and Evan could check her over anxiously.

The sudden lack of pain - and she had not even known how much it hurt until the hurt was gone - gusted in with a series of gasps Teyla couldn't deny herself. Offering a weak "I am fine," that she suspected of reassuring no one, she let her head loll against Ronon's quite magnificent upper arm and concentrated on regulating her breathing, amused when Radek started chafing her hands while Evan checked the pulse in her neck.

"Atlantis has been speaking to me telepathically," she explained after a moment and the City was quick to confirm.

"This is so. Gratius meus, Principessa, for your favor."

"My thanks for yours, Matris Arxis Atlantis," she said after a moment, still deeply astounded by what the City had done for her - was still doing, because Atlantis remained a low sweet presence in her mind. The City offered an anchor Teyla had missed since leaving Athos with John Sheppard years ago, a sense of place that felt bone-deep. Hers.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Evan asked with worried eyes. Teyla smiled into his handsome face, pleased when he smiled back, slowly, like he couldn't help it. That was better, she decided, turning her gaze on Radek, who'd finally stopped rubbing her fingers and was now merely clutching them. Radek offered her a particularly sweet smile which she returned before looking up at Ronon.

His face was beautifully fierce as he impressed on hers his anxious inspection, eyes searching and less than immediately reassured.

Ronon Dex of Sateda, a man homeless as she'd been, both of them dispossessed of their planets of birth by force, their peoples near obliterated by the Wraith. Teyla found herself thinking a wish at Atlantis that the Mother City was quick to grant.

"As Athos will, so too will Sateda rise. Imagine," Atlantis spoke from the walls, "the face of this galaxy once the Wraith are interred. Gate travel will resume unrestricted. The lost will come home. Cities will be rebuilt. The people will thrive. You will live to see a golden age unlike any other: the days of the King.

"Until those days and ever after, I am home to you, whether the worlds of your births, whether Athosian, Satedan, Terran or Jaffa, whether you are flesh or fire. You are my children now."

***

At some point, she'd pushed Janet to the bunk. Samantha noticed about the same time she realized she was still crying, lying half on top of Janet and compulsively patting Janet all over. Janet had taken her face in those small, strong hands and was crying right along with her, telling her everything was okay.

It was starting to dawn on Samantha that it really, really was. Now.

"How? How is this possible? Did Daniel-" _Did Daniel do this and not tell me? Does he hate me that much?_

"No! No, Daniel didn't ascend me, Sam," Janet said, her brown eyes wet and deep. "Orlin ascended me."

"Orlin?" _Oh, God, Orlin, thank you, thank you_ she thought, hoping he heard her somehow.

"Yes. He did it for you. And, honey, Daniel didn't even know for a long time, not until the third time he ascended. By then he was knee deep in Ori and Replicators. I asked him not to tell you. I wanted to do it myself."

"What took you so long?" Samantha heard herself practically wail, the words scraping out of her throat with a fresh round of tears and abandonment. Janet rolled her to her back and lay on top of her, dark gaze going fierce. Holding her head, Janet kept them face to face, staring at her with visible disbelief.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you- I didn't know I mattered this much to you, Sam. I'm sorry. You're right, I should have come to you sooner."

"I've missed you so much."

"I'm here. You don't have to miss me any more," Janet promised and kissed her, lips soft and warm and sweet ... languid tongue even sweeter, stroking hers just the way she liked and letting her suckle, letting her back off to bite at Janet's lush bottom lip.

Janet moaned; Samantha heard it in her chest, abruptly reminded she had hands she could be sliding up Janet's flanks. Eventually cupping the outer curves of Janet's plump breasts, her palms tingled as she felt the living warmth of skin even through clothing.

"I should have told you how I feel sooner," Samantha said, tasting the salt of earlier tears on Janet's mouth and licking it away. "I love you, Janet."

Janet's eyes closed for a moment and she took a deep breath, then looked down with a brilliant smile.

"I didn't think I'd ever hear you say that. I've been in love with you for so long."

Samantha was torn between feeling ecstatic about that and sorry it had taken her so long to get with the program.

"How long?"

"Oh ... 'bout a decade, give or take a year," Janet said in a deliberately light tone but Samantha cringed inside all the same at how much pain she must have caused her best friend before Janet's ... death.

"Jan, forgive me, please? For being ... obtuse?"

"Sammie, honey, there's a difference between being obtuse and being willfully blind, but I'll forgive you anything except changing your mind. That said, I feel duty-bound to remind you, you're still in the Air Force. Are you su-"

"Oh, fuck the Air Force."

"Hmm. There's an obvious comeback to that."

"Great minds think alike, then."

***

By some unspoken arrangement that owed more to instinct than discussion, John and Jack de-ascended first, checking out their surroundings visually as if they hadn't already swept the area with ascended senses. John was vastly amused to find he and Jack O'Neill had both chosen to dress like they were leading their teams through the stargate, albeit without all the typical armament.

The room to which they'd been directed was on the side of the largest Furling ship, its vast observation windows facing Atlantis. The City was riveting, still sending energy John could see into the rift, her shields glimmering like soap bubbles and framing her bright glow.

Teal'c arrived next, then Rodney and Daniel, the three of them looking both formidable and otherworldly in their elegant robes. No sooner had they de-ascended than their hosts materialized at the other end of the room.

John took one look, felt his eyes go wide, and stepped in front of Daniel and Rodney automatically, aware Jack was doing the same thing right next to him. Daniel's hands went to their shoulders and he murmured "thank you, that's not necessary," as he moved between them, parting them effortlessly and walking through, Rodney and Teal'c at his back. Giving Jack a shrug, John fell in at Rodney's elbow as the Agapitos Daan strode forward, head high.

The biggest Furling, the one who'd set off all those defense-mode triggers, swept up to meet Daniel in the center of the room. Humanoid, tall, slender, skin pale as milk, with black hair springing from a widow's peak to fall halfway down his back, elegantly slanting eyebrows, icy gray eyes and red, red lips ... and yes, shiny white canine teeth long enough to qualify as fangs ... the Furling wore unrelieved black except for the silvery chain that attached a cape and he moved like a trained assassin.

It was all John could do not to jump in front of Daniel again. He could feel Jack twitch from a yard away.

The Furling went to one knee a yard from Daniel, open hands outstretched as he bowed his head.

"Regestere Charus, welcome to the Ghennadie, the flagship of our fleet. I am Stefan Catalin, Danut of the Farrah Lengharis. We are honored to serve beside the Fifth Race in this matter."

John wasn't a bit surprised when Daniel took the Furling's hands and squeezed them, raising the Furling to his feet, standing way too close to an unknown to suit John.

"In all matters, I hope, Stefan. My name is Daniel."

And damned if Daniel didn't tip his head to one side to bare his throat.

***

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Jack muttered and started to step up, halted by Rodney McKay, of all people. He recognized the mental grip stalling his body and keeping him from ascending when that occurred to him a second too late.

 _"Daniel knows what he's doing."_

 _"Damn it, McKay, Daniel always thinks he knows what he's doing!"_

 _"Don't undermine him, O'Neill. Also? You might try not underestimating him for a change."_

That accusation set Jack back on his heels, forcing him to stop where he was and reassess what he was doing. McKay turned away from him, standing between Teal'c and Sheppard, all three of them at semi-attention, solid at Daniel's back, glowing with power and faith and seeming about a breath from ascension themselves.

"To feed from the Tau'ri was once considered a great delicacy on our behalf, a privilege on yours. It's a very pretty demonstration of respect," Catalin announced, head cocked sideways as he regarded Daniel like he was trying to test Daniel's sincerity with this rather arrogant declaration.

Daniel merely waited, challenge bristling all over him despite the tilt of his neck.

"See? No hard feelings, we're willing to forget how you bailed on the Milky Way when the Goa'uld came along," Rodney McKay's rather combative tone trailed away as his brain leaped sideways and ended up at conclusions that wrenched them all. "Your people are responsible for the Wraith, somehow. No. The Ancients were responsible, but they used you to do it." Rodney laughed humorlessly. "Oh, been there, done that, looked behind my City lately?"

"Praetor of Atlantis, we did indeed ... bail ... eventually. The host of the Goa'uld you knew as Ra was my grandfather's younger brother Costin. There was not much left of our family by the time Ra took his throne as System Lord," a voice spoke from the back of the room and an elderly woman walked forward, back as upright as the staff she held in her gnarled hands. Catalin backed away from Daniel as the old lady approached. "By the time the last of us exiled ourselves from your planet, we had little choice but to leave the galaxy entire."

 _"I said it. Didn't I say it? Too much like a Classic Trek episode,"_ Jack heard McKay tell John and Daniel, all three of them thinking _"It's T'Pau!"_ so loudly it was killing Jack not to laugh.

"The Bogdana Dragomir Stefania Catalin. My grandmother," the vampire-looking Furling announced with a half-bow, taking a place at the old lady's stiff back that made Jack a lot happier.

"We Tau'ri did all right, grandma. We buried our stargate for five thousand years then we killed ourselves a whole bunch of false gods before one of us ascended and took care of the rest of the problems for ya. I'm sorry about your great-uncle, though. Nobody deserves to be Goa'ulded," he remarked and the old lady smiled at him, eyes black in her wrinkled face, her silver hair piled elaborately high.

"You must be Jack O'Neill," the old lady noted, adding a few "heh heh"s when Jack looked surprised. "Supreme Commander Thor thought we should know the circumstances of Costin's death. We were and are grateful. You did him a great favor when you killed him."

She hadn't stopped smiling, so she apparently meant it. Jack couldn't help but grin back, less weirded out now by the elongated canines. He'd sure like to know just what Thor was going around the galaxies saying about him, but that he'd ask Thor. Later. Maybe after he found out how often the Furlings must have visited earth to have become such a deeply embedded cultural archetype and could the term 'nosferatu' be some kind of corrupted form of 'Farrah' or was it a morbid pun - the word could be loosely translated from Ancient into 'our food is you'.

Daniel's impressed surprise flashed through Jack's mind, making him laugh inside and think _"See, Danny? I listen."_

"I didn't do it alone," he said out loud to the old lady's nod. She approached Daniel then, lowering her head and shoulders stiffly before straightening to smile at him.

"Regestere Charus. I am very old even for my kind and feared I would not live to see the day of your coming. How fine a gift this is, to see the Empire born, to pass from this life aware the galaxies I leave my family to inhabit will know true peace. For this, and for Costin's freedom, I thank you. The Farrah Lengharis are yours to command, my word on it as Bogdana."

Daniel bowed in return, very elegantly, distracting Jack. He wasn't expecting it when the old lady turned to McKay and Sheppard, her sharp eyes inspecting them so intently Jack was half surprised their clothes didn't ripple.

"Praetor and Imperator of Atlantis, welcome. Atlantis tells us she prefers Meredith to Praetor. May I ask why?"

"It's who I am," McKay replied with a slanting smile that turned into a real one when Sheppard's hand went to his low back. The gesture made Jack wonder about how much shit McKay must have gotten as a kid over that first name. It didn't sound funny to him any more, and certainly not effeminate, not now that he heard it as a title.

"I see she chose well. And Magistere Teal'c of Chulak?"

"Indeed."

"The Jaffa Ascendant. How amazing to see the last of Benin's Prophecies fulfilled in my lifetime. I might envy my descendants their days to come."

"Bogdana. May I touch you?" Daniel offered, lifting his hands.

"Aio, Regestere Charus."

Hands slowly covering the old lady's knobby fingers where they gripped her staff, Daniel leaned forward and kissed her wrinkled cheek. If Jack mentally squinted and looked sideways, he could see the glow of Daniel's ascended energy moving, leaving Daniel and moving up the old lady's arms, lingering at every joint and seeping through her clothes ... neck, spine, hips, knees ... all the way to her feet before reversing itself to flow back up her body like a whirlwind, like Daniel was going to drown her in the light that collared her throat and then vanished under her hair.

Withdrawing after a few moments, Daniel stepped away and took the staff with him.

"My gift to you. So you will know what peace feels like before the end of your days, my Bogdana."

The old lady took a deep breath and moved her head first, breath gasping out of her on a long sigh when her neck moved freely.

"Ohh! Nothing hurts! My bones don't hurt! Oh! Stefan, look!" She took a few cautious steps towards her grandson, picking up speed when she discovered she could and laughing with every step, holding out her hands and lifting her head up high with a dancer's grace. Jack reluctantly gave the guy a few props when Catalin's eyes started watering. Jack was touched when Catalin caught his grandmother's hands in his and lifted them to his face, kissing them before looking up at Daniel.

Daniel.

"Thank you, my King."

Daniel was smiling at the Bogdana, still glowing.

Jack decided he could damned well get behind this whole 'beloved ruler' thing.

***

"I thought I'd find you here," Kate said to Elizabeth, who was at her desk, bent over a laptop and presumably reading the latest. "So you've seen the updates."

Elizabeth closed the laptop and just looked at her. Kate felt her cheeks heat.

"How do you feel?" she bestirred herself to ask.

"Now you sound like my psychiatrist," Elizabeth said with some irony.

"I'm still that, too," Kate said, making herself leave the dubious protection of the doorway, trying not to dwell on her memories of having Elizabeth naked, writhing in her arms, under her mouth...

"Hurt. I feel hurt," Elizabeth confessed after a moment, propping her head up on her elbows and rubbing at her forehead as Kate approached. "I had no idea before all this happened that things were as bad as they are between Rodney and me. Somewhere along the line I broke his trust in me. And I didn't even notice," she said, voice breaking with obvious self-blame. "Now I'm ... on the outside looking in. He doesn't even trust me to be in charge of the City."

Kate sighed, pausing. Ethically, she absolutely could not speak to Elizabeth's words, not even to confirm, deny, or explain, no matter how badly she might want to. She was Rodney McKay's psychiatrist, too.

Atlantis herself felt no such constraints.

"I am in charge of myself. My belief, should you consider it, you will know when you broke my Meredith's trust, Administrator Weir. Humiliating him publicly and then shunning his company after his failure with Arcturus convinced him you had no real feeling for him, for all that it took him some days to notice."

Kate ducked her head, remembering how Rodney's initial exasperation had eventuated into cynical appreciation - _"You won't believe how much I'm getting done in the labs since so many people have stopped speaking to me!"_ \- before Rodney had firmly wrapped his sarcastic shield around himself and stopped talking to her about anything that mattered, even after everyone else finally started to thaw.

"Worse, he agrees he deserves no loyalty from you. How quick you were to forget the way he stepped in front of Acastus Kolya and begged for your life," the City went on. Her voice was surprisingly cool. Kate watched the words rock Elizabeth, who scrubbed at her eyes with shaking hands.

"Regardless of you, Administrator Elizabeth Weir, my Meredith Rodney McKay and my Imperator John Sheppard turn the failure of Arcturus into a triumph this day. This day, we will have done with the Wraith and witness the birth of the Empire of Light. Even now, our Agapitos Daan has won the loyalty of the Farrah Lengharis, making into a new whole the Five Great Races, establishing not a mere alliance but his kingdom. The interregnum is passed away. How is it said? Vive le Roi!"

Kate dropped into the nearest chair a little abruptly, her teeth clicking. This was the sticking point she hadn't quite worked through herself, wanting to laugh hysterically every time she thought of Daniel Jackson as what, the King of the Universe? She barely knew Jackson; how much harder must it be for her unhappy lover, who'd worked closely with him and knew him well?

And what about earth? Did Jackson expect to just ... take over ... there, too?

"Atlantis-" she began, ignoring the headache that was settling in at her temples. An instant later, warmth settled in around her head and neck and two mugs full of hot tea materialized on Elizabeth's desk. Elizabeth's shoulders virtually crumpled as distress left her face.

"Oh, that's ... why?" _Why are you being nice, now?_ Kate could hear Elizabeth's unspoken question.

"I am done scolding, daughters."

Elizabeth gave a reluctant laugh and Kate knew she'd gotten the City's messages. _Punish with love. Make the lesson immediate then put it behind you. Don't waste your precious time with anger and don't stop talking. Forgive._

"I understand, Matris Arxis."

"See that you do and do not concern yourself with the First World. It is better protected now than it has ever been, even if it never becomes part of the Empire. It is my thought, the Agapitos Daan will make the choice theirs."

"Theirs? Who, exactly? Who gets to make this kind of decision for the entire planet?" Kate asked, catching something in that musical voice that lifted the hair on the back of her neck with a sudden dread of change.

"Why, her citizens, of course."

***

 _"Oh, she's plotting again, Rodney,"_ Daniel warned his friend, feeling their City through Rodney and John as well as inside the back of his own currently metaphorical mind. Having left the Furling ship, they were on their way to the rift, about to slide through the warped section of space and into the different dimension it exposed. _"She thinks she's got it all figured out, so I'll quit worrying about blowing up Moscow - so to speak - and go fetch her gene carriers home. Go to earth, take away everything but handguns and hunting rifles - that's her compromise - and tell every human on the planet 'you are not alone'. Tell 'em all. Let the citizens decide. In the Empire, or out, Tau'ri gene carriers will be offered the option of coming home. No one will be abducted against their will. Anybody who wants to emigrate to Pegasus is welcome."_

 _"Put it to a vote of the people, huh. Novel idea."_ Rodney actually liked it, Daniel could tell.

 _"Smartass."_

 _"So how's that idea working for you?"_ Jack asked, still not at all sure which way Daniel was prepared to jump on the issue. He hadn't even made up his own mind, Daniel thought.

 _"You know what I keep seeing?"_ John began before Daniel could answer Jack but that didn't stop him or Rodney.

 _"If you're going to imagine people garroting each other again-"_

 _"Is that even a real verb?"_

 _"I'm not! I ... have this other vision in mind,"_ and John showed them, picturing earth's stargate set out on a large plaza and open for anyone to use, people and trade passing freely through to more than one galaxy, part of it all. Part of everything. _"I keep thinking ... this is the First World, the cradle of humanity. How can we not include her?"_

 _"John-"_

 _"Stop."_ If Daniel had been in his body, he'd be throwing his hands up and stomping around, he was sure. _"One crisis at a time, I thought we decided. John, that's a beautiful vision. Who knew you were such an idealist,"_ Daniel marveled, loving his new friend for it, but god damn, he wasn't ready to decide what was best for the entire fucking planet earth! The rest of the local universe was enough to deal with!

 _"You stop,"_ Rodney ordered, suddenly right there in his face, holding him with everything Rodney had, which was considerable; blasting him with sheer force of will and abiding love. _"You stop, and look at what I did. Look at it."_

Daniel 'spun' around, assessing the borders of spectral energy marking the hole in the flesh of this dimension of space, trying to understand what Rodney was getting at. No longer expanding, now cauterized with power, the edges of the rift were as easily visible to ascended eyes as Rodney's pain to his heart.

 _"I know you're scared of fucking up. I don't blame you. So am I. Nobody gets how scary it is to fuck up until they've fucked up and then had to live with the consequences. I'm sure you've already thought through this-"_

 _"Did you have a point here, McKay? Because we've all fucked up-"_

 _"Thank you, Rodney."_

 _"You're welcome, angel. And it's something Daniel doesn't want to do, especially in front of you, General Jerk O'Neill. It hurts worse when that happens."_

 _"God, Rodney-"_

 _"McKay. Rodney. I keep telling you, I'm retired. I trust Daniel. Whatever the hell he decides to do about earth, he has my total support. My total support, Danny,"_ then Jack was holding him, too, holding both him and Rodney, stretched out in warmth and light, with John and Teal'c - incidentally - blocking the view and holding them, too.

 _"You need to quit kicking yourself over this, McKay."_ Jack recommended prosaically, giving them all a mental squeeze.

 _"Did you get that it would have eventually eaten up the entire universe?"_ And poor Rodney was still so horrified, most of all because there was a sort of bitter pride at having accomplished such a thing.

For Rodney, it felt like a flashback to his early teens, when the C.I.A. had impressed upon him the consequences of atomic bomb blasts - complete with film and pictures, which Daniel thought was a rotten thing to do to a kid. They'd guilted kid Rodney terribly, right into working for them, and his parents had let them take him. Now, part of grown Rodney was lingering in a bad mental place, despite ascension.

John spoke before Daniel could, reassuring Daniel that Rodney's Second saw it, too.

 _"Rodney, do you get that it isn't, thanks to Daniel and Atlantis and Teal'c and Jack and me and Daniel's army and our allies? That it had to happen, anyway? That it's really going to be okay, really okay? Do you get that? Because Jack's right."_

 _"Yes, Jack and John are right,"_ Daniel found himself chiming in and ignored how surprised Jack was to hear him say so. _"Let it go. You're helping fix it, and when we're done, there won't be any Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy. Do you have any idea what that's going to be like-"_

 _"Atlantis keeps sending me pictures."_

 _"Indeed, MeredithRodneyMcKay, do you not turn lemons into lemonade this day?"_

 _"Oh, my god, I can't believe you said that to me!"_ but it struck every one of them on their funny bones and they started to laugh, that rich sweep of feeling melting Daniel's soul. God help him, he loved this, having them all so much around him, so much inside. His family.

Impatiently, he wished the next days done. He would have liked to feel skin.

 _"There is a glorious age to come. Daniel, you are my friend and my King. Chulak is yours to command with the Free Jaffa Nation. Many among the Jaffa will long for the same new beginning you offer this galaxy if you but allow."_

 _"We would welcome the Jaffa to Pegasus,"_ Daniel found himself agreeing with and repeating what Atlantis was practically yelling in his ear. The City was deeply pleased with this offer. The Jaffa would be perfect for helping repopulate Athos, Sateda, and several other planets. Atlantis couldn't wait to get her metaphorical hands on them.

 _"And you speak for Chulak,"_ Rodney said. It was in no way a question, just as no one questioned that Daniel spoke for everyone now.

 _"I do. No Jaffa would refute this."_

 _"I hadn't realized ... Teal'c, buddy, you've been holding out on me?"_

 _"There are reasons why Teal'c is the Jaffa Ascendant, Jack. Aside from the fact that he's one of my best friends and I love him."_

 _"Those are good enough reasons, Danny."_

 _"True."_

 _"Thank you, Daniel. You honor me."_

 _"Come on, enough mush, this isn't going to get done until we get started."_

 _"Also true,"_ Daniel agreed philosophically as they started moving again.

Athar, Orlin, and Oma met them, their ascended energies surprisingly bright for all they carried an air of recent hard work - as plain as their genuine pleasure in greeting the Fifth Race Ascendants.

 _"Good! You are here at last! We have made great progress, my King."_

Daniel didn't think he was ever, ever going to get used to that.

***

 _'Then it came to pass before my eyes, many great Evils and small were banished; the bodysnatchers, so too the black soulkillers that felled our civilizations, drowned our cities and poisoned us into extinction. By the grace of the First One and the labors of the Second, washed clean were the tainted waters, this ill drained from our stars to be transfigured and hidden away against time. These acts herald the age of the Fifth Race, the army of dawn, our days of faith at last rewarded in the empire of light. Ancestors with children work to see the people made whole, freed from our arrogant lack of care, our wrongdoings rectified, the five met as one in peace._

 _'I saw that I would not live to see these remarkable days and mourned when the voices spoke to me. "You have seen them now, Benin," I was reminded and I was sore ashamed. "Forgiven," I was promised and I rejoiced. "Here you witness," I was told and I trembled in fearful awe._

 _'Shown thus to me, this child of the First World, the broken one, the sword forged in death, skin boiled from bone, this then is he, flesh become fire. This is he, the survivor, the transfigured one, this is he who will hew free our living generations. This is he, the opener of the ways, the First One of the Fifth Race. This is he, our ruler, our champion, our judge, our beloved, our peacegiver._

 _'So have I seen him and so I die blessed.'_

 ____The Forty-First Vision of Benin of Lantea (excerpted)_

***

Daniel the linguist always believed later that the written words made it sound too simple. _The broken one_ \- he'd been broken over and over again, shattered by his enormous losses. His parents. His wife. His career and academic reputation. _The sword forged in death,_ the deaths of his beloved and his own, again and again. _Skin boiled from bone_ \- even now he could not bear the memory of doing what he'd had to do when he'd exposed himself to that lethal dose of radiation on Kelowna. Saving the planet. Saving his team. Saving Jack. Dying horribly as a result.

 _Flesh become fire._ Ascending.

He'd opened the Ways, both the Stargate on Earth and the paths to the underworld, transcended the limitations of his physical form and set about teaching himself to do the same with his eternal soul. Seeing no point in limiting himself there, either, he decided he'd live in both worlds, why the hell not? He would submit to death no more.

The other Ascended kept hidden all knowledge of Benin's scrolls until well after he informed them thus, after the third time he Ascended - the first time he ascended himself - and saved the Asgard, incidentally getting rid of the Ori and Replicators. He'd been told who he was according to prophecy and the Ancients generally acknowledged him as such. Some Ascended vowed neutrality but many more their open support, as strange as that had seemed to him then, given their usual attitude towards him.

He'd gone to the Nox and read the scrolls but remained largely unimpressed. He was more than 'references in a text'. He would live in his flesh as Daniel Jackson, he would do as he pleased, and they could leave him and his the fuck alone. He'd announced it using pretty much those terms. He was going to do whatever it took to to rid the Milky Way of the Goa'uld; they could either help him or they could get the fuck out his way. At the time, he allowed he might have been hanging around Jack O'Neill too long - which was the point when the Ascended of Abydos rose to his defense, informing the Ancients if they dared interfere with their Dan'yel there would be war in heaven.

He tried not to let what he'd learned take him over and still, in the face of all self-knowledge, there was a part of him that didn't believe it even after the Symbiote Removal. _Many great Evils and small. Bodysnatchers._

Not until now, until Pegasus, until Rodney McKay and the disposal of the Wraith, did he begin to truly believe. And yet again, Daniel thought the words made it all sound too simple...

...although in the end, it really, really was, as Rodney eventually pointed out.

***

With the Furlings right there in the thick of it all, helping disable hive ships and darts while the Wraith were bodily removed by Ascended - mostly Abydonian Ascendants - the Ancients and Nox handled the Wraith as they arrived at their new homes. Teams from the Asgard, Atlantis, and the SGC helped recover what surviving culled people there were on the hiveships: four-hundred and fifty or so, fewer than they'd dared anticipate. The geas laid on the Wraith had been such that most of the hives hadn't delayed to cull, too anxious for their chance to at last destroy Atlantis.

The Wraith hadn't had a chance to even try. The Furlings telepathically sent them into hibernation as soon as they approached the City.

Relocation became time-consuming labor, Daniel making doubly and triply sure the Wraith would be able to subsist on the worlds they were inheriting. McKay's Folly, the solar system was named - Rodney said it first and it stuck - and while many thought it would have been easier to kill all the Wraith, Daniel's displeasure at that notion was clear enough that no one considered it more than once.

***

Seventy-seven tiresome mostly-ascended hours later, the task was complete; the combined Wraith fleet was reduced to a moon left to circle the farthest planet, the rift was sealed and Daniel's Army was disbanding for their home galaxies, making farewells, not goodbyes.

Afterwards, when the Ancients dispersed, the Asgard Fleet, with the exception of the Daniel Jackson, departed for the Milky Way - escorting Nox and SGC personnel home - Teal'c left through the 'Gate for Dakara, ZPM in hand, prepared to lead willing Jaffa back to Pegasus. Teal'c anticipated a huge response. Despite the defeat of the System Lords, citizens of the free Jaffa Nation weren't exactly welcome around their own galaxy. Teal'c doubted the new absence of the Goa'uld would change things overmuch. Oppressed people had long memories. Rather, Teal'c would, with the City's and their King's blessings, give his own people this second chance at the true freedom in a fresh start.

As the Furlings prepared to leave with their own ZPMs, equally anxious for intergalactic peace, promising to stay in touch, Daniel and his Fifth Race Ascendants were finally free to return to their skins.

***

"We owe you a great debt," Rodney bowed deeply in the Bogdana's direction, surprised when the old lady caught his hands and drew his palms to her face, kissing them.

"The debt was ours, Meredith of Atlantis, for it was as you guessed, and we of the Farrah Lengharis have long blamed ourselves for being unable to remedy the ill-advised meddling of others. A case could be made we should have seen this done long before now."

The Furlings had refused to speak directly with the Ancient Ascended. Their reasons why remained very carefully unthought and no results here would change the matter. Daniel had been willing to enforce their wishes, having more than enough Abydonians and Fifth Race Atlanteans to serve as go-betweens when needed.

"It wasn't your fault," Rodney said as he straightened.

"Nor was it yours, child, and yet."

Rodney snorted out a laugh before he could stop himself, relieved when the old lady grinned up at him toothily.

"Okay, maybe it was our fault, but we fixed it."

"So we did. So we did." She turned to Daniel, then, repeating the gracious gesture, her mouth on Daniel's skin lingering. "Regestere Charus. We are ever honored to serve."

Daniel returned the gesture, holding her palms to his face for a long moment.

"Bogdana Dragomir Stefania Catalin, the honor is mine. The assistance of you and your people was invaluable."

***

De-ascension found them just as busy for several more tedious hours with what amounted to administrivia. Leaders from several Pegasus worlds wanted to meet; there were trade agreements to be made. Notations were taken of worlds whose stargates needed repair or replacement. Atlantis agreed to let Daniel off the hook about going to the First World right away in favor of taking care of _their_ galaxy first, not so subtly pressured into this position by her Meredith and her Imperator in order to spare their Agapitos Daan from worrying about Earth, which wasn't exactly going anywhere anyway. When Rodney and John put it to her that way, Atlantis quickly conceded. She did send messages to every world for which she had a 'Gate address - including all the Milky Way galaxy worlds in the SGC database, which she had long since uploaded - and entertained herself by broadcasting current news, acquainting the people with the removal of Goa'uld and Wraith as well as her own independence and status as the Mother City of the Fifth Race, gatekeeper of the Pegasus galaxy, now accepting new citizens, feel free to apply.

Transmissions between the SGC itself and Atlantis flew fast and furious until Rodney finally satisfied his urge to tell the IOC to "fuck off" with a classical and well-delivered "Nuts to you" instead, just before he blocked the SGC from dialing in to his City's Stargate.

That was the point at which his three companions finally took him to bed.

***

 _"Yes, yes, child, zed-pee-ems for more astria portae in your home galaxy, too, for any who want them, yes, we know. Sleep now, my Meredith, I will protect us."_

Daniel smiled, hearing their Mother City work her magic. Cradling his restless friend in his arms, Daniel pulled Rodney against him and felt Rodney’s hyperactive thoughts subside as Atlantis quieted them - calming all her citizens and ordering R&R while she cared for her Ascendant - so subconsciously hopeful that now, perhaps, her Rodney would cease hating himself for Arcturus. Considering some of his own past mistakes, Daniel was pretty sure that would never happen, not down deep. Still, mistakes that left you alive at the end of the day became mistakes you could ultimately learn to live with. There was no alternative. He'd make sure Rodney fully grasped the concept.

Rodney took a deep breath, nuzzled his upper chest, and let himself go to sleep, leaning confidently into Daniel, trusting Daniel to protect him, too. Quite aware of what a precious gift this was, Daniel buried his face in Rodney's hair and tried not to bristle 'leave us alone' vibes to John and Jack. It wasn't that he wanted to get rid of them, exactly, it was more like ... they didn't get to be what Rodney and him got to be to each other. Not any more. They'd blown their chances at being the friend who was there with you at the end of all things, the one who took your side and had your back and never let you down. Sure, he and Rodney didn't have the history he had with Jack or Rodney had with John, but Rodney was his friend and there was just enough resentment left in Daniel for the ways Jack and John had treated him and Rodney to make him resent their presences now, despite how much he loved them or how many times he told himself he was being childish and holding onto grudges.

"It's okay, Danny. I'm trying not to take it personal. Not gonna argue and not gonna get mad." A warm hand squeezed his shoulder gently as Jack's voice rumbled behind him. "Me and John-Boy will just keep watch while you sleep, too, okay? Everything is okay, I promise."

Daniel recognized enough of Jack's tone to know he was being soothed into sleep as well, like a big fractious baby, but he was weary enough to let it pass unchallenged and coasted off on Rodney's scent.

***

At least Daniel still trusted him with his and Rodney's physical safety, Jack noted, grimly understanding a lot more than Daniel might necessarily be comfortable with, particularly considering he had Atlantis in his head, explaining to him exactly what her Agapitos Daan wanted and needed from him, would he but offer it gracefully.

Jack was doing the best he could to be - _supportive,_ of all things - and got that he had a lot of ground to make up, more than he'd even realized. He was going to have to prove to Daniel all over again that Daniel could rely on him, that he wouldn't turn on Daniel like he'd done in the past.

Daniel might not be consciously testing him, but Atlantis certainly was. Jack had been definitely put on notice.

Sheppard, on the other hand, had lain down with his back to McKay. Jack might have taken it as a position of pique, but Sheppard squirmed his ass back into McKay's, twined their feet together, and cushioned his head on his arm, apparently perfectly comfortable.

Jack O'Neill's emotional pain scale ranged from the death of his son, followed by Daniel's first ascension, then Jack's divorce and his genuine remorse for the way he'd treated Sara, every other time Daniel had died or come close to it, subsets of anguish for those times he'd nearly killed Daniel himself, almost-losses of Carter and Teal'c and his own episodes of torture, rape and near-death experiences ... so Jack decided right then and there he could deal with this, too, however much it hurt that Daniel turned to McKay instead of him.

He didn't like it but he didn't have to. The old dog was still learning new tricks. He was going to have to keep saying stuff where Daniel could hear it or it didn't count. Jack was getting it, finally. Daniel was a linguist. He needed the words.

He lay down behind Daniel and mirrored Sheppard, careful of the border between being too pushy and merely sharing his warmth. Protecting Daniel's vulnerable back, making sure Daniel knew he was there, covering Daniel with his body physically as he tried to project the feelings in his mind.

"I love you, Daniel. I'm not going anywhere. Relax. I've got your back." Literally.

Closing his own eyes, Jack heard Atlantis singing some Ancient mother's lullaby, assuring she would watch as they slept, promising to be there when they woke.

He would also be with Daniel when Daniel woke, and Daniel would just have to get used to him being there because this was only going to be the first time, Jack determined.

Vaguely wondering why they needed to sleep in the first place won Jack a telepathic lecture from the City about the physiological effects of dream deprivation in humans and the psychological effects of ascension that droned him right into dozing off, too.

***

Serenely multi-tasking, Atlantis updated current mission goals and anticipated questions, successfully responding as her predicted probabilities matched incoming queries.

"Atlantis, why have we stopped in space?"

"My Ascendants sleep, and I go no where without their full and conscious consent."

"And when they're awake?"

"My thought, we will go first to the Genii and decontaminate their homeworld. It is unlikely my Meredith, my Imperator, or my Agapitos Daan will gainsay me in this. Then to aid the Hoffans, perhaps." Atlantis idly contemplated courses that would take her to several damaged Pegasus galaxy planets on her way to the 'Milky Way' and the First World versus those routes that would end with them returning to Lantea, should that be her Ascendants' wish.

"Thank you," Elizabeth Weir replied and Atlantis answered her next petitioner.

"Matris Arxis, are John and Rodney well?"

"My word on it, Principessa. They sleep. It is well-deserved. You would see?"

"May I?"

Atlantis displayed a real-time image, her Ascendants lying together, bodies close and still, four hard heads - as she understood the figurative term - all lined up together, faces soft in sleep.

Processing the Principessa's surprise - and that of her Milesae and Physicum, Atlantis mentally blinked.

"So. Precedent in this galaxy for having three lovers at once."

"Are you complaining, my Evan?" Atlantis overheard the Principessa ask and watched Evan Lorne sink to his knees at his Principessa's feet.

"Oh, not even a little," their knight promised, already nuzzling at the join of Teyla's thighs.

 _"Be with us,"_ her daughter urged silently, generously, inviting Atlantis inside her, letting her feel what Evan Lorne was doing to them, his sly wet tongue teasing a swelling clitoris. Atlantis abruptly gained a better understanding of why her Agapitos Daan remained so committed to retaining his First World form ... then her well-ordered thoughts began to blur when Evan's hands moved over Teyla's skin. Ronon moved behind them, reaching around to cup aching, heavy breasts and gently pinch tender areolae, while Radek petted and stroked them all. Charmed when the Principessa of Athos called for her Ancestors, Atlantis convulsed with her when long fingers slid into their body and their nipples were more roughly milked by hard fingers, their Physicum catching their cries in his soft warm mouth.

***

 _"Hmm, that's lovely,"_ Rodney murmured, naked and awake in Daniel's dreamscape, Rodney having traveled with him to a place where they could truly be alone. _"You go, sweetheart,"_ Rodney thought fondly at their City, shooting Daniel a vision of him patting the nearest wall ... a wall Daniel incorporated into their surroundings, only Daniel wanted Rodney to stand in front of the wall with his palms spread flat, that wonderful ass stuck out and waiting.

 _"Doable,"_ his Meredith promised, manipulating their environment too, meeting and matching him so easily and so well; Rodney took Daniel's breath every single time. Rodney was where Daniel dreamed of having him again and Daniel was inside him already, fucking him slowly, the two of them giggling when Rodney quoted himself begging _"'Oh, please, King Daniel, take pity on your unworthy servant and let me come'."_

 _"I love you, Rodney. I love laughing with you,"_ Daniel confessed because the words were only easy to say in dreams. _"I love that you're here with me."_

 _"'Here, at the end of all things'?"_ Regarding Daniel over his shoulder, Rodney was still grinning, his face amused as he delivered the quote he'd picked out of Daniel's own mind. Delighted, Daniel wrapped his arms around Rodney's waist and imagined them into a bed, where he could lie on his back and watch Rodney ride him and bring their mouths close enough for lots of kissing. _"Only the beginning. I want you, Daniel. Always want you."_

Rodney's hips moved, resulting in some magical changes of friction and pressure on Daniel's anxious - nonexistent - flesh. Hearing silent wishes, Rodney knelt up, grasped the silver bar that appeared over his head and with an inspirational display of biceps, foot placement and control, carefully swiveled himself around, so Daniel was looking at - and touching - Rodney's broad back, admiring the stretch and flow of skin and muscle.

 _"Oh, I like this. Keep the bar,"_ Daniel groaned when Rodney began to move, lifting himself with arms and thighs. Daniel's _"my god Rodney you look incredible and the way you feel-"_ won him a flood of disorganized thoughts from Rodney that mostly centered on how fucking good Daniel felt against his prostate and how fucking hot Daniel made him feel on soooooo many levels and _"fuck me fuck me Daniel fuck me my King fuck me now"_ that had Daniel thrusting up into Rodney's tight hot hole, grip bruising the soft flesh at the wings of Rodney's pelvis, coming and coming and coming some more ... without going soft, because in their shared dreams, everything and anything was possible...

 _...zero gee and where they were didn't matter because they were weightless floating spinning in heedless arcs that traveled wobbling axes anchored together mouths to cocks and hands to asses and oh Daniel we have to find out if Atlantis has a chamber where we can try this for real my god you taste so fucking fucking good..._

 _...bent over the throne chair of a Goa'uld ha'tak with Rodney's thick cock slamming into him hands splayed over his buttocks holding him open vulnerable making him needy needy need you in me my meredith need you like this need you to fuck me take me make it rough yes god do it again spank me harder hurt me YES O GOD RODNEY..._

 _...tailbone balancing a little precariously on the edge of a lab table Rodney's lab where Rodney stands between his circling legs like they have all the time in creation Rodney's hips sweetly rocking against his thighs Rodney's cock pinning him in place Rodney holds him chest to chest their arms are wrapped around each other and it's all slow gentle Sunday morning love when Rodney kisses him and sobs with sheer pleasure..._

 _...bent over his desk at the SGC, robes shoved up to his waist legs spread wide to get Rodney closer clever clever tongue frenching his ass and god Daniel loves having Rodney's tongue up his ass best thing ever ever ever..._

 _***_

 _"Atlantis. Rodney and Daniel all right?"_ John asked his City silently, after giving her a while to coast on Teyla's well-deserved afterglow. He just wanted he and Atlantis would not discuss that. Ever. And no pictures. Atlantis sang and hummed along and kept her mental images to herself, for which John was thankful.

 _"They are safe and well, my word on it, my Imperator. Our Meredith does nought outside our reach, dear one. Allow the Agapitos Daan this, he has need of his friend, a solace he can only find in his Seconda Conscenderus."_

If John's City wasn't so tied to him genetically and now through Ascension, John thought he'd worry about the frightening level of interactive sentience she was presently displaying ... but Atlantis was as much a part of John Sheppard now as his own molecules. She would never betray him, the rest of her Fifth Race Ascendants, or their citizens.

 _"I know,"_ he said and let her see how he felt so she'd believe him. He wasn't jealous. He got that Daniel was holding something of a grudge against O'Neill, for whatever reason. Daniel still hurt. It didn't help that he believed he'd brought a lot of it on himself; John understood how that worked that better than most. Feeling - being - responsible only made it worse, sometimes. But Daniel being with Rodney made Daniel feel better and John totally got how that worked, too; that's how Rodney made _him_ feel. Better. He would never begrudge Daniel that.

 _"You are a good man, my son. You please your old Mother's heart. You have come to an understanding that our Bellator has not, I fear."_

 _"Yeah, I kinda got that impression, but I think this is something we need to stay out of, Ma."_

 _"I take your warning, my Imperator, but it does my heart no good to see our King and his Warrior at odds."_

 _"Jeez, enough with your heart already,"_ John rolled his eyes at his City with fond impatience, relaxing as she updated him on their current position and status. _"They'll work it out."_

 _"Just so, John Sheppard. Just so. Should you not sleep?"_

O'Neill was sleeping. Lightly, but well enough to keep him from noticing Daniel and Rodney weren't exactly ... all there. Probably a good thing, John thought.

 _"I'm not ready, yet."_

 _"What do you need from me, dear one? Your loved ones are well."_

 _"Can you show me?"_

There was a sound like a sigh breathing over his nerves. John felt Atlantis' regret.

 _"I cannot. What they do is beyond my capabilities to observe. I cannot see them. I perceive an awareness of their integrity through their bonds to me."_

 _"Let me feel them. Please,"_ John begged impulsively. He wanted to know what his City knew.

 _"As you wish."_ Brace yourself. Atlantis didn't say it, but John heard it all the same, just in time for a raw blast of sexual energy to burn down his spine to his balls. It felt like his cock got hard instantaneously. He had to semi-ascend for a few seconds just to keep from coming - he expected, loudly - and disturbing his bedmates.

 _"Shit! What are you doing with that?"_ His City was channeling a lot of raw power on more than one level of reality.

 _"Zed-pee-em-"_

 _"You're seriously going to call them that? What about- what is it- potentia?"_

 _"It will please our Meredith if I do, will it not?"_

 _"Oh, he'll be insufferable and you know it."_

 _"Even so. As I was saying, zed-pee-em production continues, thirteen at latest count, eight of which departed with various allies. Drone replacement is likewise in progress. Both processes require a significant amount of power, as will disarmament and decontamination of the Genii homeworld, however, power is not a concern."_

 _"They'll probably just start over again."_

 _"There will be peace in the meantime and we go no where at this very moment,"_ Atlantis reassured as John settled back into his skin, sensing somewhere down in his bones that Rodney and Daniel had done the same and were only sleeping, now. Arousal fading into a tired, wistful ache, John let his City's promised calm soothe him into joining them at last.

***

Daniel dreamed he was looking for Sha're, as he did often, searching heavens and worlds for her living presence because he'd never quite learned how to stop after her death or his many own. When Oma ascended him after Kelowna - and him none too sane at first, mourning his life, his team, mourning Jack and his forsaken humanity - Daniel had searched the universe for Sha're again, thinking at the time there had to be something left of his wife beyond bones and dust. Something of her spirit out past the mortal plane, proof of her immortal soul.

What fate, Sha're.

He'd never found her. Saddened that so many of her final moments came to him accompanied by the agony of Amonet's ribbon device, Daniel had never stopped looking, even - especially - in dreams.

His current dream felt so very different, as lucid as the internal landscape he and Rodney had created earlier and as 'real' as anything Daniel ever experienced. He and his beautiful wife walked inside Ra's temple on Abydos, hand in hand, both of them in their best Abydonian clothing, the hems of their robes swishing over the stones.

The temple was spectacularly complete instead of being one of the smoking holes which covered all of Abydos. Seeing the temple now had Daniel's throat aching. Sha're drew him to sit at the top of the stairs, where a ha'tak was intended to rest, vast bay doors open onto Ra's grand throne room. Taking his hand in hers, Sha're leaned her curly head to rest on his shoulder, the weight of it heavy, familiar, and warm.

 _"Dan'yel, you have done well, my husband. You make me proud. Such a good father to Shifu, making his stars safe. I knew you would. I chose well."_

 _"You never had any choices. I failed you, Sha're-"_

 _"No, my Dan'yel. You never did."_ She was holding him then, somehow, time skipping in the way of dreams. Sha're's embrace was strong, her yearned-for scent up Daniel's nose making his eyes sting and burn and prickle. _"Good Husband, you have never failed me, and I had more choices than you think. Did you really think my father forced me to marry against my desire? I wanted to be your wife from the moment I saw you and my Good Father knew this."_

 _"Sha're, Sha're."_ Crying in his dreams the way he never quite let himself cry when he was awake, Daniel clung to this momentary reality, holding his wife and grateful to his soul for the opportunity. _"I miss you. I miss you so much."_

 _"Be well, my Dan'yel. Be happy. You only betray me by being unhappy and alone."_

 _"Even if..."_ Daniel thought of Jack, Rodney, and John, not sure Sha're wouldn't condemn him.

 _"Yes, even if, my love. I think my husband must be very beautiful with his maritae."_

 _"Oh, no, no, not- they're not-_ husbands, _Sha're! We're not-"_

 _"O my Dan'yel, of course you are,"_ she laughed, rich sounds coming from way down deep in her belly, the way she sounded when she found him particularly amusing, and oh, how he'd longed to hear Sha're laugh again...

***

 _"Your turn to lie awake, my Meredith?"_

 _"Daniel's ... restless."_

 _"You should not concern yourself so."_

 _"Huh. Pot, kettle."_

 _"I understand that, you know."_

 _"I know you do, sweetheart. How are the citizens?"_

 _"All are well. Their duty shifts are quiet, many sleep. I am given to understand there are big parties planned starting tomorrow night, if not most of the next week, and your presence will surely be desired."_

 _"Big parties, huh."_

 _"Many wish to celebrate freedom from the Wraith, my Meredith, wishing also to tender thanks."_

 _"Mmm, no. We didn't do it for thanks. We did it because it needed to be done and we could do it."_

 _"'That's what makes you that guy'."_

 _"No. Just, no. No Bruce Willis Die Hard quotes. Are you watching every stupid movie that comes in from earth?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"Oh, god."_

 _"Additionally, reviewing those books available via your electronic media. I particularly enjoyed the Lord of the Rings series and find it remarkably relevant given current events. 'There is a real king now, and he will soon put the roads in order'."_

 _"That quote I like. 'The Return of the King', Frodo to Bilbo. I know you think earth's stargate ought to be open to the public. I want to agree. But. I'm just not sure the public in question is at all prepared for full disclosure. Most people on earth don't believe aliens exist, you know, and then there'd be a war over what country would control the gate."_

 _"Not if I control it."_

 _"Oh, now, Atlantis-"_

 _"Do not trouble yourself, my Meredith. I will gainsay neither you nor our Imperator. The First World's 'Gate will wait."_

 _"What, you had to make a mnemonic?"_

 _"Something like that."_

 _"Mmm. Thanks."_

 _"Specify?"_

 _"You always make me feel better, sweetheart."_

 _"...and I am ever grateful to serve, dear one."_

***

The latest unscheduled offworld activation turned out to be Teal'c dialing in from Chulak, requesting 'an audience'. Hank Landry, who'd been on the red phone - again - getting his ass chewed by the President - again - was damn glad to have a reason to hang up, hoping like hell Teal'c had some intel that would keep the brass off his ass and his career out of the crapper. He met Teal’c in the briefing room, ordering everybody else out.

"Teal'c. What can I do for you?"

"I am here to relay information, GeneralLandry," Teal'c said smoothly, moving to look out at the stargate. "Atlantis is supplying zero point modules to several worlds, Chulak among them, in several galaxies, including the homeworlds of the Asgard, Nox and Furlings. Unrestricted intergalactic 'gate travel is about to become a reality. There are no Goa'uld, no Ori, no Replicators, nor Wraith left to endanger ... the humanities."

That term had Daniel Jackson written all over it, Hank decided.

"How do you intend to manage the First World's stargate now?"

Since Hank very much doubted he'd be managing the stargate much longer - him being the general who lost Atlantis - he snorted out a bitter laugh and shook his head.

"How about you tell me what Daniel Jackson thinks we ought to do with the stargate. Isn't that what you're really here for?"

Teal'c regarded him with that massive gravitas that always reminded Hank the Jaffa was practically old enough to be his grandfather. It was only then that Hank noticed the symbol on Teal'c's forehead was different. Teal'c no longer bore the mark of Apophis. Inside a gold circle shaped like a stargate was a winged horse beautifully molded in silver. The detail was incredible, constellations etched on the stargate, distinctly outlined feathers on each high-flung wing, and a tiny blue gemstone sparkling at the horse's eye. Hank couldn't look away from it until he caught Teal'c's eyebrow rising.

"Ah, it's beautiful work."

"Thank you. The MatrisArxisAtlantis and I designed it."

"The Mother City." Hank swallowed. "The city really is sentient?"

"Indeed, GeneralLandry." Teal'c's head tilted as his lips twitched into a smile. "The Mother City of the Fifth Race, seat of the Empire of the Agapitos Daan. Atlantis, gatekeeper of Pegasus. Even now Jaffa from many planets prepare to accept her invitation to help repopulate worlds culled by the Wraith. There are other people once subjugated by Goa'uld and Ori who desire the same new beginning. The Empire will welcome them, too."

"The Empire. Jesus Christ," Hank muttered, constitutionally unable to let that pass. The SGC had gotten databursts from Atlantis updating them on Pegasus Galaxy events until McKay had ordered the SGC locked out and oh, hadn't the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff appreciated hearing that. 'King Daniel Jackson' was about the biggest load of horseshit anybody'd ever heard, no matter what the reports from Atlantis said about the end of the Wraith, and nobody was taking those reports seriously. General opinion held it was a foothold situation; Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill were traitors along with apparently the entire command staff of their Pegasus Galaxy base and probably most of the crew.

"Consider this. There is no further need for Stargate Command under its current mandate."

And with those words, Teal'c ascended right in front of Hank's goggling eyes, passing through the wall and vanishing into the suddenly open, active event horizon of the stargate.

"Aw, hell." Hank was already visualizing the next call on the red phone when the stargate - which had remained active without triggering either the iris or the incoming wormhole alarms - issued its distinctive 'plop' sound and Lya of the Nox appeared. She stood in front of the gate with a couple of strange aliens - Hank couldn't call them unfamiliar, though - as well as Colonel Samantha Carter and Doctor Janet Fraiser, whom, Hank had been reliably informed, was dead. It was enough to make a man wistful for the good old days when dead meant dead. Not for the first time, Hank wished he knew nothing about the Stargate. Making his way down to the gate room, Hank ordered the SF's to stand down and attempted to behave like a diplomat to their advanced-race ally.

"Lya, good to see you again. Colonel." Samantha Carter grimaced at the tone of his voice, Hank noticed with satisfaction, perfectly willing to let some shit roll downhill. Carter had been there and hadn't stopped whatever the hell it was that happened to everybody on Atlantis; Hank Landry wouldn't be going down by himself.

He bowed politely towards Lya's companions - happy to ignore the little zombie doctor in favor of the two vampires - ! - standing in front of him - and welcomed them to Stargate Command.

He certainly lived in interesting times. God damn it.

"General Landry, may I present the Bogdana Dragomir Stefania Catalin and her grandson, Stefan Catalin, Danut - that is, leaders - of the Farrah Lengharis. You know of them as the Furlings. Bogdana, Danut, this is General Hank Landry, the leader of the military installation that houses the First World's Stargate."

The Furlings? Now? And _these_ were the Furlings? He'd heard enough of Jackson's crap to figure they must have spent plenty of time on earth at some point if they were.

"Under lock and key, accessible to only a few," the old lady vampire said disapprovingly, shaking her head. "And not on the ground where it was placed for good reason. Still, this antedates your tenure here, I suppose, presenting a situation you've inherited. A pleasure to meet you, General Landry."

"The pleasure is mine, Bogdana Catalin, Danut," he nodded, thinking new allies might go a ways towards improving his position.

"Well, you're no George Hammond," Janet Fraiser - or whatever this was that looked like her; maybe she was a vampire, too, now - muttered under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping one impatient foot.

"Doctor? Perhaps you'd like to explain how-"

"This?" the doctor turned into light. Carter bit her lip and looked down - Hank didn't dare look at the SF's or the techs in the control room - while all three aliens watched with varying degrees of surprise on their faces as Fraiser solidified back into a person.

"Another Ascended. Master Teal'c was just here. This more of Jackson's work?"

"No, Sir. Orlin ascended Janet- Doctor Fraiser," Carter said while Fraiser added a fierce "Daniel had nothing to do with it."

"You want to explain what happened on Atlantis, Colonel?"

"What happened?" the Nox woman said, practically glaring at him. The Furlings looked none too pleased, either. "Is there some doubt as to what happened? The First One of the Fifth Race has come into his inheritance. The Regestere Charus Ascendant, He who is both flesh and fire, our judge, our peacegiver. Should the First World fail to step back into the stars with the rest of us, she will still never be better protected than she is now. I am here to inform you the galaxies are at peace and you react as if you are under attack."

"Truly, do your people have no understanding, child?" The old lady asked next, studying him, her black eyes deep and intense. Hank forced himself to look away, fearing the same effect on his mind that had robbed the SGC of Atlantis. _"I don't have to look into your eyes, Henry Beauregard Landry, to see inside your mind. Your pop culture characterizations of my people are not altogether accurate, you know."_

"I do now," Hank grunted.

"General?"

"What does Jackson want from us? Bottom line it for me. What are his demands?"

"Do you mean us as in earth, all of humanity, or us as in Stargate Command?" Doctor Fraiser's question started grinding Hank's teeth for him.

***

"The Agapitos Daan wishes only peace. Your planet is no longer threatened. Your people should be celebrating," Stefan found himself asserting with some arrogance, mystified in actuality, helplessly distracted by memories of the King's beauty when he smiled, something apparently unusual enough to make his bonded take note every time he did. Stefan had been quite aware where many would not. He'd also watched Daniel Jackson closely and held his own estimation of the First One's motivations. "Your galaxies are at peace. Are you not grateful?"

"Grateful. Good men and women have come under some kind of alien mind control and you expect-"

"Daniel Jackson is a child of this world, the First World. Your world. Is he not?"

"He used to be. He's not human anymore," the general said so furiously Stefan had to increase the strength of his mental barriers to avoid feeling contaminated by Landry's bigoted ire, automatically protecting his companions, including Samantha Carter and Janet Fraiser ... although his grandmother hardly needed his protection, a fact of which she reminded him silently as he drew his next breath for the curse he wanted to hurl at this stubborn-headed fool.

 _"Hsss, child, Lya will speak."_

"I see," Lya said with audible cold disappointment. "Is this the formal position of Stargate Command, General Landry? Think very carefully before you respond. Perhaps you should speak with your superiors. In fact, I insist. If it is truly earth's wish to be isolated from the rest of the galaxy, then we of the Nox and the Farrah Lengharis can make it so."

 _"And our King will be in no way responsible,"_ Stefan added for his grandmother, thinking it well if they could lift this burden off their peacegiver's shoulders. All who knew Daniel knew he was at a loss with what to do where the First World was concerned, which is why, after retrieving Lya, Samantha and Janet from Thor's ship, Stefan found himself escorting the ladies to earth to handle things themselves. They hadn't exactly anticipated the military mind, however, so certain of threat.

 _"Mmm, good point._ How did the Meredith say it, Stefan? 'I think we're done here',".

"Yes, my Bogdana. Just those words as the Arcturus rift closed over his Folly."

"I agree." Lya sounded thankful. "Janet? Samantha?"

"I, uh, I kinda have to stay, Lya. Thanks, though," Samantha said, reminding Stefan of her status in earth's Stargate Command. He'd almost forgotten she was anything besides Janet's beloved friend. She would have duty, of course. "Jan?"

"Well, I guess I'll just do whatever I want. It's not like anybody can stop me, is it," Janet Fraiser put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Lya, Danut, Bogdana, allow me to apologize on behalf of humanity for this poor display. I'll go up to the ship with you-" she said to Lya then turned to briefly clasp Samantha's upper arm, a remarkably chaste goodbye, Stefan thought "-but I'll be around."

Stefan ordered their instant transport to the Ghennadie with that, beyond relieved to be back on his ship and subject to her restful psionic acoustics.

"What an ass!" Janet Fraiser declared almost before they retook form. Stefan rather agreed, wondering again at the wide variation in the species that produced the Fifth Race Ascendants, still so deeply insulted on his King's behalf by the general's words he could not trust himself to speak.

"In Landry's defense, I suppose it does meet a lot of the parameters of a foothold situation ... invasion by aliens," she explained to Stefan's and his grandmother's interrogative stares. "That's pretty much why the SGC was set up to begin with, to protect earth from alien invasion. It's gonna be hard for them to jump horses in midstream when it comes to changing philosophy."

"You counsel patience, then?" Lya asked, her arms crossed over her chest and an unlikely pout on her pretty face. "I am given to understand the SGC uses the Antarctica stargate now, but I rather fancy the notion of snatching it up and replanting it in Egypt, myself. Near the Great Pyramids, where it belongs."

"Oh, my lord, you're not serious," Janet burst out, eyes gone wide. Lya began to laugh, the tinkling sound bubbling through Stefan's veins with his sense of the Nox woman's power, fueled on that vast and tolerant good humor.

"I merely contemplate, friend Janet. For the most part. You must admit, it is a tempting notion."

"Such a plan would have the support of the Farrah Lengharis, as well. We would happily assist in establishing free, protected public access to the stargate," his grandmother volunteered, winking at him. "We might even provide a plaque of some type, directions for use with a few assorted gate addresses."

"Oh, I don't think Daniel would approve," Janet said, shaking her head a little and laughing. "I would love to see his face, though."

"As would we all."

***

Right then, Daniel was wishing no one was seeing his face. Jack was staring at him with that expression he hated, like Jack had no idea who Daniel was and thought what was coming out of his mouth was _stupid_ and Daniel _hated_ that look in Jack's eyes-

"That's because the words currently coming out of your mouth _are_ stupid, Daniel. How can you wake up next to me and have the nerve to suggest a minute later that I leave you?"

"I only meant- _you don't_ **have** _to stay here you can go anywhere you want to go Earth Edora Asgardr or Vanaheimr hell Chulak just- you don't have to hang around."_

 _"Oh, I get it now, John, what I did to you. I'm sorry. Ouch,"_ Rodney thought loudly while wrapping Daniel up in his arms, making Daniel lie there and listen. Daniel attempted to smother himself in his pillow. _"Look, Jack, he's just trying to give you an out if you want to take it. Of course he wants you to stay. It's not that he doesn't want you, he just wants to know you're staying for the right reason, because you want to, not because you think you're obligated so-"_

 _"Okay, Rodney. You know, I can speak for myself,"_ Daniel sniped, well and truly irritated now, not that that ever stopped Rodney, whose next words were heard only by him.

 _"Yes, Daniel, but you won't. You never do. You're as fucked up about some things as I am so you can't sneak anything past me. God forbid we should make any demands, right? Because if we want something it will never happen. Do our best not to want much at all and settle for less than we deserve. And really, why ever rely on anybody because they'll only let us down. They always let us down. And why shouldn't they? Who are we to keep them? When our own parents didn't see fit to take better care of us, when they abandoned us-"_

 _"Rodney, no."_

 _"Daniel, yes. Your parents were terminally stupid to be standing under that rock together. At the very least, one of them should have stayed out with you, just in case of what did happen. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry you saw it. That sucks. But what they did - what they chose to do - was not your fault. It was theirs. They were careless, reckless, and failed in their responsibility to you and you have the right to be angry about that. I'm so sorry it happened. I don't doubt they loved you and I wish you hadn't lost them and I hate that your life sucked after that but you've got to shake off this foster kid attitude, Daniel. Stop anticipating everyone is going to bail. We_ can't. _None of us wants to. Can't you feel that?_

 _"My parents- someday, we'll go to Scotland and drink large quantities of fine local product and I'll tell you stories about my fucked up childhood but not today. I'm not telling you to just get over it, Daniel. Some shit doesn't go away. Just, quit blaming yourself. Stupid bad stuff happens to people. It wasn't your fault and you're not cursed and before you bring up what happened to Sha're, that would have probably happened whether you were in the picture or not. You aren't being singled out and you'll never lose us._ You can't."

 _"If I didn't love you so much I'd take you outside the shields and kick your ascended ass around the galaxy, Rodney!"_ Stung, Daniel was sorely tempted, but the naked honesty beneath his friend's rambling words sank in and poured oil on his wrath.

 _"Well, you can try, I suppose,"_ Rodney said, sounding willing to indulge him, ascending them both with a quick "back in a bit," for John and Jack and careless of the conversation he'd interrupted between Daniel and Jack.

Melting into the deck, Daniel chased Rodney through their City, who called time-out every time Rodney spotted some area needing repair. They burned off their excess energy fixing things while Rodney kept talking.

***

"Well. Looks like it's just you and me, John." Jack O'Neill didn't sound too happy about it, either, John noticed.

"Not precisely so," Atlantis remarked politely, speaking into the room. "Tell me, my Bellator, what did you do? What so distresses my Agapitos Daan that it weighs on him still?"

"Why does everybody assume it's something I did?" O'Neill wondered, throwing himself on his back and putting one arm over his eyes. "I'm not even sure which something it is, what does that tell you."

"Ah, man," John said sympathetically, feeling for the guy. Feeling for both of them, really; Daniel, too. Which didn't prevent John from taking a leisurely admiring look at the general's naked body, paying particular attention to where that good-sized lax cock lay curled at the apex of two long hairy thighs. Nice view. "Hey, it could be worse. He loves you."

"Why isn't this bothering you?" Jack waved his free hand in the air. "This whole Daniel and McKay thing?"

"I'm still here," John pointed out as if it should be obvious. To him, it was. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Is that enough?"

"It's everything."

***

 _"So what did he do? How did Jack let you down, Daniel?"_ Rodney's warm lips brushed over Daniel's ear. That's how it felt, when they were so deep inside each other they created their own internal reality, where molecules of light felt like hands brushing over his skin. He couldn't keep Rodney from seeing what came to mind then replaying it. _"He let you go. Let you die, let you be ascended. He didn't even ask you to stay. You were dying and he said-"_

 _"He said,"_ Daniel whispered, returned to his flesh so fast he couldn't parse his surroundings, in bed again with Rodney holding him, John at Rodney's back and Jack behind Daniel. _"He said I was a pain in the ass and he might have grown to admire me. A little. He thought."_

 _"No! That's not- I couldn't say what I- this is how I_ felt, _Danny!"_ and a torrent of raw old grief poured over them like a suffocating blanket of thick wet moss. Jack's horror at the cause of Daniel's death, the sight of Daniel wrapped up like a mummy leaking blood and lymph ... all mixed up in Jack's mind with the sight of his son lying in a puddle of blood and gray matter. That same frozen shock immobilized Jack's brain, kept him from feeling what he knew intellectually he could not tolerate feeling and live, gave him enough distance to pretend to function until he could get home to his nine mill...

The raw emotion pierced Daniel, tapping deep wells of hurt he'd tried to cement over.

 _"It's not that you let me go. I asked you to do that. But I thought- I thought-_ I fucking died, Jack, and I thought you didn't even care. _I loved you so much and you didn't even care!"_ Daniel half-ascended again, unable to bear remembering how much it had hurt, the pain still so ferocious, screaming up from inside him. "Goddamnit, Rodney!" he cursed when his friend yanked him back into his flesh with a terse "get it out now and deal with it, angel."

Jack's hand on his upper arm burned like fire.

 _"I did care, Daniel, I cared then and I care now, don't you get that yet? I love you. I'm sorry I hurt you and I can't even promise not to do it again. I just promise to try, Danny, just like I promise I'm here with you because I want to be with you. I need you. The only reason I lived through losing you then was because I knew you'd come back someday and I had to be here when you did."_

"I get to say it this time, John - this is our cue," Daniel heard Rodney say, all the warning he got before Rodney and John ascended, leaving him alone with Jack. _"You're not alone,"_ he was simultaneously reminded by Rodney, John, and Atlantis, making him smile inside even though he could not feel less amused.

"Rodney. Tact, from you? Can we stand the strain?"

"Oh, ha ha, my King," Rodney drawled back, speaking through their City but using his own voice, quite a trick, Daniel thought, mentally congratulating his Meredith before turning back towards the difficult conversation with Jack.

"I'm sorry," Jack said again a little helplessly, planting his forehead in Daniel's chest and hiding his face. "Please, Danny. Be mad at me for hiding my feelings, but don't doubt that I had them. Still have them."

"I'm sorry, too. I've been ... an unforgiving bastard. But you have to understand, it was..." Daniel sighed, sure he couldn't get the words out of his mouth. _"From my perspective, it was more evidence that you didn't really want me, didn't really love me. I was just- just-"_ It was so hard to say, even inside his own head.

 _"-a fuck? A willing hole? Never, ever. Every time I made love to you it was because it was you. I wanted you, Daniel. I want you."_ Jack's dread that Daniel was never going to get past the way Jack's issues had colored their relationship was as clear as Jack's regrets and fears that Daniel wasn't going to give him the chance to prove he was trying to change.

Daniel buried his nose in Jack's soft hair and breathed Jack in.

"I kinda got that message when you decided to ascend. I ... let my fears get in the way. Jack, you gave up everything for me," Daniel said to the top of Jack's head. Jack took a deep, shuddering breath and Daniel palmed his vulnerable nape, holding this man he loved so much as close as skin would allow.

"You noticed that, huh?" Jack's mouth moved against Daniel's chest, punctuating his question with a soft kiss planted over Daniel's heart. "I wanted you to know I was serious."

"I do." Cradling Jack's head in his hands, Daniel scooted down for more kissing.

***

"Do you, uh, have, uh, you know, anything like that? Some 'thing' I need to apologize for?"

His fork stalled halfway to his mouth, Rodney looked up from his tray and goggled at John.

"No? Nothing you haven't already addressed quite thoroughly, Colonel," Rodney said, cheeks flushing a delightful shade of pink that made his eyes look very very blue. John might have been distracted by Rodney's charming reaction but he could feel Rodney's surprise that John would even bother to ask. They both knew John would rather just do instead of talk about it. John just wished Rodney sounded more certain, more sure of him.

"You'd let me know, right?" he persisted. Rodney set his fork down and crossed his arms over his chest, breaking the hold John had on his gaze to look out the nearest window, out at distant stars. "There **is** something."

 _"I promised you I was okay with you and I meant it, but ... when I think about how you turned on me after Arcturus, I'm still ... really hurt. I know I was an asshole but I don't think I deserved the way you treated me. It's hard to forget. But it's not a big thing like Daniel's thing. Except so far as it makes me wonder when you'll ... turn on me again."_ Rodney immediately regretted his too-honest thoughts, turning away and hunching his shoulders a little. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"You could have at least said 'if'," John agreed, expecting it when his voice sounded a little rough in his own ears. It felt like he was forcing the words out past the ache strangling his throat. "I'm sorry, too. I'll never do that to you again, Rodney."

"Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome. That's it? You could, you know, yell. If it would make you feel better." John wished Rodney would. Rodney lifted one eyebrow at him and tried not to grin, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"I can think of other things to do to you with my mouth, John, that would make me feel better than yelling."

Briefly shocked by Rodney's blatant innuendo in a mess hall full of people, John forgot for a moment he no longer had to worry about being closeted; he forgot until Atlantis literally zapped him in the ass with a mild electrical current.

"That is the pre-arrest warning issued to those who would presume to verbally or physically deny my children their civil rights. Continued infringement results in transport to a holding cell. No one is being incarcerated for thought crimes, my Imperator," Atlantis reported very quietly.

"Understood. Any detainees?"

"I would have told you."

"I know." John sighed, feeling a little ashamed when he saw how Rodney's face had closed up.

"Magistere Teal'c arrives from Chulak," their City informed them in a normal tone of voice. Rodney nudged him with one elbow before getting up to bus his tray.

"Come on, slow poke," Rodney said as he turned into light and vanished. Shaking his head, John hurried to follow, ignoring their startled audience.

***

Elizabeth supposed she'd have to get used to it, the stargate opening and Ascended beings popping out of nowhere, solidifying into people she thought she knew ... people, it seemed, she had badly underestimated. Master Teal'c appeared through the gate, John and Rodney came out of the floor; two glowing balls of light that turned into men who welcomed the Jaffa warrior home like family.

"More than family," Atlantis informed her privately. "They are Fifth Race Atlanteans, now."

Glad she'd taken the time to review Benin's Prophecies, Elizabeth wondered now why she'd waited so long to believe them. In her defense, she still hadn't wrapped her mind around the Wraith being gone, along with the Goa'uld, the Replicators, and the Ori, nor that her command team had ascended and Atlantis had declared independence. It was a lot to take in. Atlantis did her the favor of agreeing.

Teyla and Lorne came in and flanked her, waiting. John and Rodney looked up at her from the gateroom floor - it hadn't escaped Elizabeth's notice that they were wearing jeans and tee-shirts, John's black and Rodney's blue - before they politely directed Teal'c up to join her.

Teal'c wore Chulakian robes and presented a formidable sight, particularly when she noticed the alteration of his tattoo.

"Master Teal'c. Welcome home," she said, gratified by the City's pleasure in her choice of words.

"Thank you, DoctorWeir. It is good to be home." Teal'c tilted his head, his beautiful full lips curving into a smile. "I have news of the First World," he reported as she escorted them all into the conference room.

"And what makes me think we don't want to hear it?" Rodney asked under his breath.

"You may well not," Teal'c replied evenly, his voice regretful. "The reaction is much as we might have predicted. Stargate Command has taken the position that Atlantis has suffered a foothold situation. GeneralHankLandry is ... obdurate, as are his superiors. Lya of the Nox introduced him to the Farrah Lengharis. They found him quite ... offensive, to such a degree they and Lya have offered to remove earth's stargate and interdict all offworld travel."

Elizabeth felt her eyes widen. She'd met Lya; it would have taken a lot to insult the Nox woman to the degree that she'd make such a threat. Not that she thought Hank Landry was incapable of it. He could be a supercilious bastard sometimes.

"Lya has instructed him to take this offer to his superiors but it is Lya's position that the stargate does not belong to the American military, it belongs to the people of the First World."

John plopped into a chair, kicked his feet onto the table, heaved a massive sigh, and folded his arms over his chest. Rodney sat next to him. Teal'c seated Elizabeth and Teyla with lovely gallantry before sitting where John could frown at him, undeterred when Lorne sat next to Teyla.

"We're trying not to hassle Daniel about earth. We've already had this discussion with Atlantis-" John began.

"My sworn word the Agapitos Daan will not hear further on the subject from me," Atlantis interrupted, reminding Elizabeth the City was always listening, especially when her Imperator or her Meredith spoke.

"Betcha that's why Lya's handling it," Rodney muttered, his attention turned inward for a long moment. "Yeah," he said to nothing Elizabeth could hear.

"Let her," John said with a shrug.

"Let her quarantine earth? Oh, sure, why not. It'll make them more grateful when Atlantis eventually shows up with a new stargate," Rodney said. John jumped like he'd been stung.

"Hey! I thought we just said-"

"Loooooooong view, Sir John of Doubting Me," Rodney said, making what Elizabeth thought was a very irritating gesture, pointing back and forth between his eyes and John's. "Give it fifty, maybe a hundred years. Maybe sooner, if someone on the planet makes the leap and ascends first. It could happen." His tone didn't make it sound likely.

"Lya and the Farrah Lengharis favor relocating the stargate to an area of public access, preferably in Egypt. The Farrah Lengharis have agreed to provide site security and maintain freedom of access. This option, of course, has yet to be presented to the Tau'ri."

"But that would mean-" Elizabeth began, immediately entranced with the notion of a public stargate before the ramifications started to set in.

"Full disclosure of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Disclosure of the stargate program. Removal of the stargate from the control of Stargate Command. The immediate end of Stargate Command." Master Teal'c's voice, warm and soothing as it was, only enhanced the gravity of his words.

"No," Rodney said, standing up and pacing. "No. We really can't. The SGC has ships, too, remember? Nobody's taking them away. Tell Lya and the Bogdana - never mind, I'll tell them myself. They need to leave the SGC alone. Daniel wouldn't like what they're proposing. I mean, sure he would, in a perfect world, yes, yes, it's all very Disney and Spielberg, but it's not a perfect world. Aside from the whole panic-the-populace-with-the-truth thing, let's drop the stargate into one of the most politically unstable regions on the planet? Someone will try to nuke it, people will die trying. Doesn't that gate belong in Antarctica, anyway? It would make people more serious about using it, wouldn't it, if it was re-sited there?"

Rodney winked at John, who grinned back, a look in his eyes like he'd dodged a bullet-

 _"Because our Meredith forgives him,"_ Atlantis remarked

-and Elizabeth had to duck her face to hide her own smirk. Rodney had stopped pacing, leaning up against a wall and closing his eyes.

"Rodney?" she called when his skin began to shimmer. "Do you think it would it help if I went to the SGC and spoke with Landry and the IOC myself about Atlantis' status and intentions?"

"Maybe. I'm afraid they won't let you come home if you go," Rodney admitted after a moment, his eyes on hers serious and deep. "They'll probably arrest you. You'll be held for medical and psychiatric exams, you know, before anything else happens. Landry won't listen to you and he won't protect you from the NID."

"But I shall," Teal'c intoned solemnly, making it sound like an oath. "I will ensure DoctorWeir's safety, MeredithRodneyMcKay, if you will permit me."

"I will, thank you. Elizabeth?"

She doubted she could get better protection than the Jaffa Ascendant. Rodney obviously agreed, grinning at her.

"Yes, of course, thank you, Master Teal'c," she said, smiling at Teal'c, who was regarding her a lot more favorably than he had on previous occasions.

"Shall we proceed to the stargate, DoctorWeir?"

"Wait. There may be others who want to go with you. People who aren't prepared to cut their ties to earth," John pointed out quietly. "They also need to know what they're walking into."

"Atlantis, post this meeting to all citizens, request they record an opinion."

"By your command, my Meredith," Atlantis said blandly and this time Elizabeth let herself be amused by the words.

***

 _"Rodney, how, exactly, are you keeping all this shit off Daniel's radar?"_

 _"Actually, that's mostly Atlantis, although I am doing, if I must say so myself, an exceptional job of remaining calm, cool, and collected in the face of such profoundly consummate asshattery-"_

 _"Yeah, yeah, okay, don't lose it now, babe. Don't you think he'll notice you going through the gate?"_

 _"I'm hoping Jack has him distracted. Coming with?"_

 _"You know it."_

***

Daniel was in fact distracted, Jack no less so, the two of them lying semi-ascended in each other's arms, caught up in the reality they were making inside their minds and lost to everything else.

Jack had caught on to this like he had flying. Reminded of Rodney McKay in his head saying _"you'll have to desensitize him to the idea,"_ he'd secluded himself with Daniel in their mental landscape - and damn if McKay wasn't right about that, too; thinking was easier than saying and apparently a whole helluva lot easier for him and Daniel than actually in-the-flesh doing. So far, anyway.

In the privacy of their shared thoughts, Jack felt free to act on his most secret fantasies. He opened his legs and begged Daniel to touch him. It was safe, here, to push down on Daniel's elegant long fingers and confess his greedy pleasure. Safe to throw back his head and moan, bare his throat to Daniel's mouth, safe to give himself over to the way Daniel's fingers stroked over his prostate and sent him soaring.

Safe enough for Jack to admit how much he wanted Daniel to fuck him, both here and with their physical forms.

 _"Please, Danny, please."_ Glad Daniel didn't ask if he was sure, Jack let Daniel turn them, growling regret when Daniel's fingers slipped out of his body, understanding when Daniel pulled him on top so he was straddling Daniel's waist.

 _"You do it if you want it really want me I can't,"_ Daniel's mind gibbered at him, Daniel's arousal battling genuine terror. Jack could feel it so clearly. If he'd been depending on his lungs to keep him breathing he'd have been out of luck, he realized, struck all over again with the pain of what he'd unthinkingly, unknowingly put Daniel through.

 _"You're all I want, Daniel,"_ Jack swore and de-ascended them, right before he reached down, braced Daniel's slick cock - he wasn't going to ask - with his hand, then carefully lowered himself onto it.

Like having Daniel in his mouth, this was nothing like anything that had ever happened to Jack. Wanting made all the difference, and the initial burn was already turning into an itch Jack was dying to scratch. He took Daniel slowly, keeping his eyes on Daniel, making Daniel watch him while his body adjusted ... making sure Daniel saw the want in his eyes.

"I love you, you know," he managed, groaning the words a little as his ass finally came to rest, throbbing around the hot hard length he was holding. Inside him. "God, you feel good. Huge, but good."

Daniel smiled at him, a big, happy shit-eating grin that looked so amazing on Daniel's face Jack lost his heart all over again.

"I love you," he mouthed and shocked them both when his eyes started watering. "I love you, Daniel."

"I believe you, Jack," Daniel promised, making Jack feel how much he meant it. "I love you, too," Daniel added before pulling Jack close, putting those abs to work and curling up so he could lick the tears off Jack's face. Jack thought it a wonder they hadn't simply evaporated; Daniel's cock stirred him deep and left Jack gasping, suddenly burning up, his skin hot and tight. He felt impossibly aroused and wanted more. More moving. Now.

"I need- I need-" he needed to say it so Daniel could hear it, Jack knew that much by now. It turned out to be easy to say with Daniel's tongue rasping over his jaw. "Oh god, Danny, fuck me."

"Jack. Yes," Daniel said unevenly and turned them over.

Different like this, with Daniel above him, Daniel on top. Good, way beyond good, with Daniel's mouth on his neck and Daniel's body warm and strong and taut sweaty muscles moving against his cock with each gentle rocking thrust. Good, god yeah, good, but.

"More, Daniel, damn you, I'm not going to break! Put your back into it, Mister and move!"

Daniel burst out laughing, collapsing on Jack, his irregular jiggling movements forcing a surprise climax out of Jack, who hadn't even known he was that close. He barely heard Daniel groan over his rushing pleasure, then Daniel was finally giving Jack what he wanted - which was only everything - pushing Jack into coming even harder.

***

Daniel couldn't resist slipping down between Jack's knees. He paused to swipe his tongue around the head of Jack's softening cock, savoring the flavor of Jack's ejaculate before he slid his palms beneath Jack's haunches and curled Jack up. Jack was barely awake and still drowsily accepting; there would never be a better time and Daniel longed to see his come drip from Jack's ass, given that he'd surrendered all hope that would ever happen.

"Daniel? What are you doing?" Jack asked in that 'I'm willing to go along with you if you give me a reason' voice Daniel had been hearing from this man since ... day one, actually.

"I'm looking," he informed Jack honestly. "Hold your knees."

"You didn't hurt me," Jack said as he politely obliged, hooking his hands under his knees and going along.

"That's good, but that's not why I'm looking. Not my main reason, anyway," Daniel corrected himself, adjusting his own position according to his immediate plans. "I'm glad I didn't hurt you." Daniel palmed apart Jack's buttocks and hummed at the sight. Jack's asshole was puffy and pink, wet with Daniel's come. Unconcerned, for once, that Jack would be shocked, Daniel lowered his face and swiped his tongue along Jack's cleft, lingering over that tightening ring of muscle.

 _"Oh fucking god that feels good but ick, Daniel, that's just-"_

"Don't you dare think nasty, Jack O'Neill. Or gross. Have you eaten since you de-ascended?"

"You know I haven't- oh. Well, okay, I get it. But still-"

"But nothing." Daniel licked Jack again before pulling reluctantly away, kneeling up, unashamedly showing Jack how turned on he was by what he'd been doing. "Unless you really want me to stop," he offered, struggling mightily to be mindful of Jack's limits yet again. It shouldn't be such a harship; Daniel loved Jack, but something in Daniel's subconscious was demanding he ask Jack 'do you intend to deny me' instead.

Jack's gaze had gone to his cock, then fixed on his eyes. Jack's own gaze was dark. Aroused. Not repelled or repulsed, to Daniel’s surprise.

"What happens if I do, Daniel?"

"Then I don't do that. To you."

Visibly letting Daniel's thrown gauntlet lay, Jack offered him a knowing grin.

"Good thing I wasn't planning to say no, then," Jack said. He rolled over and pulled his knees beneath him, putting his ass high. "Here. Might as well make it easy on your neck."

The memory of Daniel laughing between the kisses he pressed all over Jack's ass became one of Jack's favorites.

***

"That's what he said? That Daniel isn't human any more?" the Meredith of Atlantis asked furiously, making it evident he shared Stefan's sense of insult at the Tau'ri general's choice of words. Rodney McKay's blue eyes glittered with icy displeasure as he crossed his arms over his fists and paced over to the viewport, staring out at the world of his birth.

"How dare they? How do they dare? It's my fucking planet too, you arrogant moth-" The Meredith's Imperator put his hand over the Meredith's mouth, which mattered not, because Stefan Catalin, Danut of the Farrah Lengharis, did not need his ears to hear.

 _"-erfuckers!"_

 _"Chill, Rodney, or you'll have Daniel-"_

 _"I know, I know, sorry. It's just, goddamnit, John, doesn't it bother you, too?"_

 _"You know it does. You're right, it sucks, they can't do that to us, but we can't just go in there guns blazing-"_

 _"The hell we can't. We can plop right down in the Pentagon and ask those assholes who the hell they think they are to try to - what? Declare us non-human? Banish us from the planet of our birth? It's not even my fucking government!"_

 _"Calm down, Rodney."_

 _"Fine, I'm calm. No, really. I am."_

To Stefan's very great amusement, the Imperator took hold of the Meredith's face and kissed him soundly. By the time John Sheppard lifted his head, Rodney McKay had forgotten all about being angry, and while neither was he precisely calm, his demeanor was greatly relaxed.

"It seems you have our Meredith well in hand, my Imperator," his grandmother cackled as she waltzed in - it seemed to Stefan that she danced everywhere she went of late and it was marvelous to witness - followed shortly by Lya, Janet Fraiser, and Samantha Carter, who was blushing hotly, apparently shocked by the Ascendants' embrace.

Wistfully reminded by that heated rush of blood of certain human delicacies he might have once enjoyed, Stefan grinned at the Meredith's rolling blue eyes. Then Rodney McKay caught sight of the women behind his grandmother and startled them all with his bright pleasure.

"Lya! Janet! Samantha!"

"The Bogdana and I extracted Samantha from a cell," Lya said, her expression as unexpectedly serious as her tone. "I fail to see how we, in good conscience, can leave the First World's Stargate in the hands of the American military."

"But we can't take it from them, Lya. There are bases and outposts on other Milky Way worlds with SGC and IOC personnel who are out there relying on this Stargate to be where it is."

"Stargate Command would still have its ships-" the Bogdana began.

"Without the Asgard, not for long. And we know where the Asgard will stand on this issue," Rodney McKay insisted, his Ascended energy brilliant with power when Stefan watched him by mind.

"I promise you, my Meredith, that no one among us stands against you or our Regestere Charus. The decision falls to those of you who were born on this planet. We of the Nox will have this no other way." Lya's calming voice wrapped around them all, giving the Bogdana time to reach Rodney McKay and take his hands.

"My friend, be at ease. What, then, are the wishes of our King?"

"Hands off for now. Leave the SGC alone. Nothing has to happen today."

"There are those of yours who even now prepare to gate to their immediate arrest. Will you do nothing still?"

"We're going with them," the Imperator of Atlantis decided, taking his Meredith's hand as soon as the Bodgana freed it.

***

"Rodney," Samantha Carter began, stepping towards Rodney a little slowly, like reluctance was dogging her feet. "I, uh, in all that's happened, I haven't had a chance to say, to tell you-"

"I know, I know, you're kicking yourself that you missed your shot with me, am I right? Too bad, so sad and all that, but hey, you and Janet, congratulations and may I say, wow, mental images for the win." Glancing over his shoulder, Rodney dropped John a big old wink and nudge, but this time, John was pleased to see, Samantha Carter saw right through Rodney's outrageous bluster and started laughing.

"Yeah, Rodney, and may I say, same goes," she said, giving John a leering grin that made him - and Rodney, as soon as Rodney saw John wasn't upset about it - snicker with her.

"Yes, well, no one can ever accuse me of poor taste, can they? Why did Landry lock you up?"

"Because I told him there is no foothold situation on Atlantis. He accused me of dereliction of duty and put me in the brig 'to think about it' before we testify before the Joint Chiefs."

"Damn. He's throwing you to the wolves, huh." It wouldn't be the first time John had seen that behavior from a commanding officer; it was one of those things that worked John's last nerve.

"According to Landry, the President pretty much has it out for him over 'losing' Atlantis and he's 'not going down alone'," Carter said, killing John with the invisible air quotes.

"Oh, is that so," John replied slowly, using his free hand to rub his chin while he considered the situation.

When Rodney was right, he was right. He just had the wrong who. Master Teal'c would take care of their Atlanteans; John and Rodney had somewhere else to be.

"Uh oh, it's the Lucy Ricardo face," Rodney barely had time to say before John ascended them.

***

 _"Daniel? What's wrong?"_ Daniel heard Jack ask the moment he awakened, uneasy.

 _"I don't know._ Atlantis?"

"Yes, Charus meus."

"What's happening? Specifically, where are Rodney and John?" Daniel just had that feeling; something was going on. He could practically hear Atlantis trying to manufacture an obfuscation. "They aren't here."

"I am instructed to tell you, 'if Daniel asks, tell him it's glowy business and go back to sleep'," Daniel's City prevaricated. Daniel opened his eyes in time to catch Jack rolling his, and had to laugh when Jack had hard thoughts about kicking Thor's skinny gray butt next time they met up.

"Answer the question, Matris Arxis meus."

Atlantis actually sighed - Daniel felt the cool gust of her discomfort blow through him and wondered rather fatalistically how bad could it be.

 _"Ever the optimist,"_ Jack teased lightly and reassured him with a hug.

"This _is_ Rodney and John we're talking about," Daniel said out loud, smiling in spite of his apprehension when Jack grinned at him. "These are the guys who blew up five sixths of a solar system.

"Thought that was McKay's fault."

"Sheppard was right there with him, he was in command, wasn't he? If he didn't stop Rodney in time, then it's on him, too, Jack. Isn't that how you've always seen it? How many times did you have to stop me?"

"Not nearly enough, Danny, but I guess we had to go through it all to get here. Ma, you're stalling."

"They have gone to the First World," Atlantis finally admitted. Daniel's eyebrows flew high.

"They went to the SGC?" Jack asked, doubting it would be that simple.

"Ah, no, however, Magistere Teal'c is presently there with Citizen Administrator Weir, Citizen Heightmeyer, and some few others. All are well."

"Interesting news, but you're trying to distract me. Where are my Meredith and my Imperator?" Daniel turned himself into light and sank into his City's bones, radiating his pleasure when Jack automatically came with.

 _"Washington D.C. Specifically, the Oval Office of the President of the United States."_

 _"Oh, fuck me,"_ Jack thought, torn between exasperation and awed disbelief.

Daniel felt the same way, but was willing to bet something big must have precipitated this. Atlantis agreed with his reasoning and started showing him more specifics. It took her a while. Both Daniel and Jack were fuming by the time she was finished and for so many reasons: the idea that they were considered non-humans now; that Landry had arrested Carter – or rather, attempted to - and was steadily demolishing Stargate Command's reputation with all their advanced race allies.

 _"Atlantis. Open the gate to the First World, please. No, wait. How long would it take us to go there?"_

 _"Regestere meus, there are three zed-pee-ems connected to my stardrive. It will take us less than a solar day should you wish to 'make it so',"_ Atlantis replied, her mental tone very much a mother's, both teasing and scolding an unthinking child. _"The decision yours, but it is not my Meredith's wish that I go to the First World. There is much work to be done in this galaxy."_

 _"Hey, Daniel, do we really need the stargate or Atlantis to travel?"_ Jack wondered while Daniel considered how much he didn't want to upset Rodney, and it would, if Rodney thought Daniel was treating him like he needed Daniel's supervision.

John Sheppard just might, though. Daniel had to laugh.

 _"No, we don't. Let's just say I have this urge to float through the iris."_

Jack started laughing too - it was a singular sensation that warmed Daniel all the way through his currently noncorporeal form.

 _"It's that advanced race thing, again. Now I get it."_

***

"Well. My horoscope said it would be an interesting day. May I help you gentlemen? Doctor Rodney McKay and Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, Retired, correct?" President Henry Hayes looked expectantly at the two men who'd been glowing balls of light - with tentacles, yet - just moments before. Rodney McKay was dressed in what looked like navy Armani, if Henry didn't miss his guess, while Sheppard was wearing his dress blues, chest full of hard-earned lettuce that proved he was fully entitled, retired or not. Henry had put one of those medals there himself.

Henry had to say he found that reassuring; if Sheppard was still displaying his respect for the Air Force and his position in it, he wasn't likely to dishonor it here. He was also showing some allegiance to his Commander-in-Chief and his country. Henry hoped.

"Correct. Just out of curiosity, have you yourself seen and read the reports coming from Atlantis, or are you getting all your information filtered through the IOC, NID and SGC?" Doctor McKay asked rather sharply.

"I had to cancel plans with Prime Minister Harper-" McKay winced. Henry wanted to grin but he wasn't quite over the way both ascended beings had so effortlessly waved away the Secret Service and his aides. They'd all simply walked away, as if seeing nothing unusual. "-so he and I could catch up. Atlantis sent me reports directly, may I add. Hacked into the White House's TVs, faxes, and computers to make sure I received an unfiltered account.

"I understand the Wraith are gone from the Pegasus galaxy. Congratulations to you both. I am very proud of your achievement, Colonel Sheppard. Doctor McKay. The Prime Minister asked me to pass along his gratitude with my own. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that before now. What with the Stargate on Atlantis being locked out to the SGC and all."

McKay winced again.

"Thank you, Mister President," Sheppard said, but his eyes became expressionless and rather cold. Henry made himself sit back in his chair - behind the Resolute desk, which suddenly didn't look big enough - and steepled his hands across his stomach as he attempted to appear less intimidated than he actually felt.

"Please, sit down."

McKay started for a chair, but Sheppard's hand shot out and caught him by one arm.

"We'll stand, thank you, Mister President. Do you support General Landry's actions? He is arresting citizens of Atlantis as they arrive at the SGC, in the mistaken belief that there is some kind of foothold situation going on in Atlantis," Sheppard began, hands behind his back and shoulders rigid. McKay started talking next. Henry got the impression that happened a lot.

"He's also insulted all our advanced race allies and is badly damaging the reputation of Stargate Command and your government with the Nox, the Asgard, and the Jaffa Nation. Not to mention the Ancients. And the Farrah Lengharis - the Furlings to you. Our allies are considering removing earth's stargate as well as their support for the SGC. Do you realize what the consequences will be to the starship program?"

"Rodney," Sheppard said quietly and just like that, McKay quieted, although Henry was too busy mentally cursing Hank Landry to pay a lot of attention - or so he told himself - to the heated look McKay gave Sheppard.

"Mister President-"

"Gentlemen, please, sit. May I get you something to drink? You do still drink, I presume?" Henry got up and poured them all three fingers of good Scotch, pleased when his hands didn't shake.

"We are still human, Landry's xenophobic issues aside-"

"As well as most of the Joint Chiefs," Henry added drily, setting their drinks within reach before sitting back down. He raised his glass to his visitors. "To the freedom of the Pegasus galaxy," he intoned before sipping, when he really wanted to be gulping the fine liquor down.

Sheppard said "To Pegasus," and choked with Henry when McKay said "To the Empire."

"'Aye, and there's the rub'," Henry said after clearing his throat. "I assume you're blocking all electronic surveillance in the room?"

"We are," Sheppard admitted gravely. "You mentioned the Joint Chiefs."

Henry shook his head.

"I am well aware of what Landry is doing - I've ordered him to stand down and turn command over to Lieutenant Colonel Carter but he's managed to convince most of the Joint Chiefs that Atlantis has been taken over by aliens who are currently targeting this planet for invasion, and the Joint Chiefs are, shall we say, vigorously opposing my position. Perhaps you could convince me that they're wrong."

"We were born on this planet, just like you were, buddy," Rodney McKay snapped back. "Ergo, not aliens."

"Rodney," Sheppard said quietly and McKay - who'd been glowing around the edges; Henry had noticed - sat back in his chair, taking a fortifying second sip of whiskey and visibly willing himself to silence.

"The United States government is closer to suffering a military coup than it's ever been, over a program that doesn't even exist as far as the public is concerned. There is some irony in that."

"Then I suppose some people need to be reminded who the hell they're dealing with," Sheppard replied, his lips twitching. "With your permission, Mister President? We can do impressive show and tell."

Henry was pretty sure he didn't actually say yes before he materialized on board a starship, orbiting earth. His Secret Service agents were with him - as was the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff and assorted subordinates, his Secretary of State and entire cabinet, seven members of the Supreme Court, his National Security Advisor, and the heads of the CIA and FBI along with several members of the IOC and the NID.

Hank Landry was there, too.

That was hardly all. Supposing he shouldn't be surprised, Henry nodded at Stephen Harper and the other heads of state he recognized before they were all distracted by the view.

The humans from earth had been placed beside huge clear observation windows, so they could stare out at the planet they called their own. The view was magnificent, and telling, Henry thought. He, for one, felt very well reminded of how small and fragile earth was.

Understandably, it took him a moment to notice the other side of the room.

Arrayed in a mingled group that flanked four Ascended beings were a number of representatives from the advanced races. Supreme Commander Thor was there with half a dozen other Asgard; Lya was there with twice that number of Nox. There were five beings Henry recognized from Atlantis' thorough reports; the Farrah Lengharis, the Furlings of legend ... and what legend! Henry was still taken aback by their appearance, stricken at a visceral level to learn vampires were apparently very real. There was a group of Jaffa, as well, and a small clutch of humans on that side of the room, Lieutenant Colonel Carter, Doctors Elizabeth Weir and Katherine Heightmeyer from Atlantis among them.

Henry gave some thought to Chinese curses and the potential merits of having astrologers on staff.

***

John put himself on Rodney's right side and traded in his dress blues for black jeans and a leather jacket, figuring he might as well be comfortable. Rodney de-ascended wearing the blue robes his Agapitos Daan had given him, energy leaking out in heat shimmers John could see and feel.

 _"You are so fucking hot in that. I get why Daniel likes it so much,"_ he told Rodney, thinking Rodney _looked_ like the Meredith of Atlantis in those robes, the Seconda Conscenderus, glowing with power.

Master Teal'c de-ascended on John's right and Janet Fraiser at Rodney's left and John had to remind himself and Rodney they had too much audience to do what they wanted, no matter how much they were tempted.

 _"I'll wear them for you later._ This is how we'll proceed. As the right hand of my Agapitos Daan, my Regestere Charus, _thank you for the reminder, John_ , I stand here beside the heads of the Allied Great Races," Rodney started informing the assorted world leaders, generals, and admirals, shining so brightly John had to be half-ascended himself just to be able to see all of him. "Remind yourselves with whom you're dealing here while I remind you that I have also been employed by the government of the United States for most of my adult life so I feel like I have a valid stake in not wanting to see it fall over control of the stargate. I simply will not tolerate the notion."

And oh, boy, Rodney was on a roll, now, talking over several loud protests.

John loved it.

"The stargate will be removed from its current location and replaced in Antarctica, where one is supposed to be. There are reasons why stargates are placed where they are, gentlemen and ladies, scientific reasons, and the absence of the stargate and the loss of zed-pee-em energy at the Antarctica Ancient base can be directly linked to the worsening weather patterns and derangements of earth's magnetic lines. This needs to be done. The Antarctica stargate should have remained in situ. Atlantis will supply a zed-pee-em to the site.

"Ideally, Atlantis and I would also like to replace the Egyptian stargate as well but politically, realistically, that would be dangerous right now. So, the existence of the one stargate will be made public knowledge and its use will be free for public use. In time, when there's peace, another one."

"You have got to be shitting me," Hank Landry burst out at last; John had wondered who was going to break first. He'd bet on Rodney's Prime Minister, who looked red-faced and ready to shout. The President's face was thoughtful, still bearing traces of wonder, because, really, Rodney was beautiful like this, full of fervor and sure, his mind made up in an total one-eighty from his original position.

John loved when Rodney did that.

"We have no problem with the SGC defending and administering public use of the stargate. From Antarctica. With continued oversight by the IOC. Although we - that is, the Empire, we - support the Hayes administration in its request for a new commanding officer, namely Samantha Carter. The current treaty supplying the starship fleet with Asgard tech - and Asgard scientists - will also remain unaltered in scope and practice, to which the Asgard have agreed as a favor to our Agapitos Daan."

The Asgard stepped forward en-masse, bowing slightly in Rodney's direction, acknowledging the right of the Seconda Conscenderus to speak for his King. John was glad once again he was only semi-corporeal. He'd be squirming with arousal if he was fully in his flesh, wanting to feel Rodney with his skin.

At the same time, John wanted to snicker, hearing Samantha Carter's silent dismay - _"Rodney, Antarctica?"_.

"Otherwise, we - as in, the Empire, we - will leave you - as in, earth - alone. You might want to consider how you're going to spin this so the fallout doesn't land on those of you who knew about the stargate all along. After the truth comes out, people will be pissed off that you knew and they didn't. The rest of the world will never forgive. Imagine when the citizens of the United States also find out certain elements in their government were considering fucking over their Constitution for control of it. Hmm. So. Not. Happening."

"We aren't pressing you - earth - to become part of the Empire, although travelers from the First World will always be welcome on all Empire worlds and Atlantis," John added before Rodney could say anything else too inflammatory.

Landry's mouth was moving but no sounds were coming out. Several people on Hayes' side of the room seemed faintly ashamed and the world leaders' faces were generally shocked.

"How do you, how do you propose to make the stargate public knowledge?" Hayes finally asked, trying very hard to appear calm and collected. John, who perceived reality a little differently these days, had to admire the guy's effort.

"That decision is yours," Lya of the Nox said with her customary gentle smile, stepping forward to stand beside a barely de-ascended Janet Fraiser. "We request only that you do it relatively soon. Relative to you, that is."

"You have a specific time frame in mind?" Landry asked sarcastically; John could practically see smoke coming out of his ears.

"The stargate has already been relocated," the Bogdana said from Lya's other side, inducing several startled gasps from the observation window side of the room. "Heimdall is placing the zed-pee-em-" John thought Rodney would blind him, both ways, completely unaware of how much he was beaming, himself "-and already the magnetic lines begin to stabilize, my Meredith."

That drew more gasps, particularly when Rodney reached out to touch the Bogdana with gentle white light. She laughed at him; every single person in the room relaxed; it was the Bogdana's gift and she drew people around her like flies. John kinda thought it was probably a good thing the Farrah Lengharis had exiled themselves from earth when they did. History might have read very differently. Who knew. Where they were now was what mattered, and he'd never been more proud of Rodney when Rodney elegantly bowed to Stefania.

"On behalf of my people, that is, humans born on the First World, allow me to thank you once again, my Bogdana, and your people, for your assistance in ridding the Pegasus galaxy of the Wraith and for all your help today. Thank you, Supreme Commander Thor and the Asgard, thank you, Lya and the Nox. Thank you, Teal'c and the Free Jaffa Nation."

Henry Hayes began to applaud, the Canadian Prime Minister quickly joined him ... it took a few moments, but soon enough everyone alongside him was clapping, too. When it died down, Stefan Catalin stepped forward to bow to Rodney and John.

"The galaxies are at peace and the First World well protected. Thanks to you, our Fifth Race Atlanteans, our Matris Arxis Atlantis, and our Regestere Charus." All the assorted beings bowed deeply in Rodney's and John's direction; John could feel their heartfelt respect and deep appreciation like a blast of fresh air. Rodney was reeling with it, microseconds from ascending fully - John caught him back into his skin and saw the hot blush they'd already shared in their minds as it covered Rodney's face.

 _"Take it, buddy. You deserve it."_

 _"Daniel should be here."_

 _"Where else would I be?"_

Daniel appeared in their ascended landscape like a flaming rock hurtled by a catapult, his brilliant presence radiant and sure of his welcome. He had every right to be. Daniel pulled them right out of their skin to join him - Master Teal'c and Janet Fraiser, too - with Jack O'Neill's bright light like a shield at his back and his Prince Shifu at his left hand. Daniel drew all of them in around him like armor, like loving arms.

John was buzzing with the rush of being one with his beloved, feeling them all through him. He thought he couldn't get any higher ... then he heard Daniel telling Rodney _of course you had to do it, it was John's vision_ and knew he'd be crying if he was corporeal. Crying big time. Sobbing, snotty, teen-age girl crying. He was that touched.

Rodney loved him that much. _Daniel_ loved him that much.

It was a little hard to take.

The Bogdana waltzed into Daniel's ascended embrace like she'd decided she belonged there, and John felt again all her awe and wonder at the coming of the King in her lifetime, the sheer _triumph_ she felt in witnessing the last of Benin's prophecies fulfilled.

***

 _"My King, allow me to present you. This is my ship,"_ the Bogdana reminded politely, amusing Daniel with the steel in her tone.

 _"Whatever you want, my Bogdana,"_ he said agreeably, wondering what she'd come up with and how embarrassing it was likely to be.

 _"Wait to de-ascend until I ask for you, if you will indulge an old woman's sense of theatrics. I have waited for these days."_

 _"Anything, Stefania."_

 _"Thank you, Daniel."_ The Bogdana let him know she would have kissed him if him if he were corporeal, then she turned to face the other side of the room.

Funny, how to Daniel the people there looked and felt like 'others' now, particularly when Daniel considered the kinship and devotion he felt towards the people surrounding him.

He'd loved John's vision and adored how Rodney had found reasons to do exactly what John wanted - putting the stargate out there for public use, making the First World part of the galaxy, if not part of the Empire. Re-aligning earth's magnetic lines and stabilizing weather patterns was just a bonus. Daniel was actually delighted to find the stargate had already been placed in Antarctica, knowing himself well enough to admit he would have waffled over that decision, probably for years.

 _"Thank you, my Meredith."_

 _"You're welcome, my King,"_ is what Rodney thought loudest but Daniel could feel his relief that Daniel didn't feel he'd overstepped. Daniel reckoned Rodney - and John - had behaved pretty low-key, for John and Rodney. All they'd done was apparently assemble half the government of the United States along with several world leaders and a lot of shocked people from a dozen other countries to some kind of summit ... on board the Farrah Lengharis' flagship ... prevented a coup, ordered dissemination of public knowledge about the existence of the stargate ... and repo'ed the 'gate on behalf of the Ancient scientists who'd stuck one in Antarctica to begin with.

Yeah, pretty low-key, considering. Nothing had blown up. Yet.

Jack virtually snorted in his ear and Daniel started laughing, his sudden deep amusement striking them all and prompting them to laugh, too.

 _"You say that like it's a sure thing,"_ John replied with pretended insult, still openly coasting on the rush Rodney got from having Daniel around. If he'd been limited to his body, it might have bothered John - Rodney and Daniel's obvious emotion for each other - but in his ascended state, John could only share it and enjoy.

Daniel loved John for that. It was so seductively easy here, in this state, to reach out and love all his friends, confess how much he liked and admired them, how proud he was to know them, what good people they all were and how much he repected them, each and every one his family now. Especially his Fifth Race Atlanteans. Daniel could shift his energies just so and bask in their powerful love and care for him. He had to be careful of doing it too often, still not altogether certain what made the Ori what they'd become and not wanting to take any chances.

Jack hid a flash of aggravation very quickly; the temptation to 'eavesdrop' was overwhelming - another addiction Daniel had to resist - choosing instead to find the humor in wrenching himself around to John's perspective. Jack was there, regardless, and Daniel had to smile at that.

Rodney ... Rodney surrounded Daniel and held him and was deeply pleased to simply be with him. _Uncomplicated,_ Daniel was quietly reminded, and relaxed into his friend's ascended embrace before eventually deciding he was prepared to see what the Bogdana of the Farrah Lengharis had to say.

When things calmed down, Daniel had so many things he wanted to ask her about the presence of her race on earth, certain myths and archetypes...

***

Stefania looked over this unprepossessing group of First World humans and thought - very loudly - that they did not deserve the honor they were about to be granted, an audience with the King. Not one of them recognized or perceived it as clearly as her people, the Nox, and Asgard did. Stefania found it all rather unfortunate that these humans took no pride and regard in what their world had produced: the First Ones of the Fifth Race.

To Stefania, it was a marvelous thing. Better these First Worlders understood what their King had done for his galaxies.

"I am the Dragomir Stefania Catalin, Bogdana of the Nineteen Allied Worlds of the Farrah Lengharis. The Furlings," she added with a grimace, not caring overmuch for the way the name had been corrupted. "Yes, there was a time when our species walked among yours, obviously, but the Goa'uld became a curse on both our kind. We retreated. We left you. Your ancestors wisely covered the stargate, yet you uncovered it barely in time to save yourselves and you owe our King and his Army far more than you seem to know. Do you not understand that Ra planned to descend on your planet next, after Abydos. Ra would have come by ship, had not two humans of the First World, two born on earth, protected your collective posteriors, and that only the first time. Set towards freedom, these two met two more and became four. Four individuals determined to see freedom prevail in their time. It pains us that you do SG-One no honor, for in the eyes of the Allied Four Great Races, there are no honors great enough for what we have seen accomplished in these days since our King opened the Ways.

"The Goa'uld are gone, removed to a place where they can harm none. The Ori. The Replicators. And now, the Wraith, too.

"Our galaxies are _free_. To stand with the Empire of Light at the dawn of peace is our very great privilege. So should it be yours, and how you can doubt it is beyond me.

"You do not understand what it is like for the old among us, to see these prophecies come around, to see stories we learned as children becoming truth. I submit it would be like watching the Second Coming of the Christ, if the analogy might suffice, but I fear many among you may ill take the example. I mean no disrespect. I can tell you, I am the oldest among us and I say we are all privileged to live in this time.

"'Shown thus to me, this child of the First World, the broken one, the sword forged in death, skin boiled from bone, this then is he, flesh become fire. This is he, the survivor, the transfigured one, this is he who will hew free our living generations. This is he, the opener of the ways, the First One of the Fifth Race. This is he, our ruler, our champion, our judge, our beloved, our peacegiver.

"'So have I seen him and so I die blessed.'"

By the time she finished, several people - from many different races - were quoting right along with her.

***

Daniel took that as his cue to de-ascend. Determined, this time, to be first, Jack went to one knee and covered his heart with his fist, Teal'c-style, as soon as he became flesh. Teal'c, Rodney, John, Shifu and Janet followed right after and it spread out in a wave from there; all the representatives from the various allied races doing the same, kneeling to their King.

Daniel, still wearing his brown Abydonian robes, blushed and opened his mouth, his eyes wide and astonished.

"Don't tell us it's not necessary, Danny. No one who's ever lived deserves it more," Jack said quietly, but loudly enough to be heard.

"I didn't do it all alone, Jack," Daniel still protested, of course.

"Too much of it you did," Jack pointed out grimly, still not over the fact that Daniel had gotten rid of the Goa'uld without him even knowing ... well aware he had only himself and his former attitude towards ascension to blame for missing out on the whole thing. "Thank you, my King."

"If you think we're kneeling to you, Doctor Jackson, you're in for a rude awakening," Hank Landry announced loudly. No one on that side of the observation room had knelt, not that Jack had realistically expected them to, although several were standing with respectfully bowed heads.

"I don't think you've caught up with the program, Hank," Jack replied as a number of low insulted hisses surrounded him. "No one's asking you to kneel, but a little courtesy might not come amiss, because here's another option. The Asgard remove all tech and consultants from the SGC's fleet, _we_ operate the gate, and _we_ handle the public announcement. Atlantis stands ready to hack the planet. And, by the way, it's our fucking planet too. Can't be a foothold situation if it's not aliens, you dumbass.

"Whatever happens, we aren't letting control of the stargate threaten the stability of the government. Anybody's government. This means we aren't sitting back and letting the Joint Chiefs persist in this idiotic plan to unseat Hayes and declare martial law, by the way."

That prompted growing - and increasingly strident - dissent between Hayes, several Joint Chiefs, and most of the Supreme Court. Daniel held up a hand and the Ghennadie provided force fields, muting the ruckus from behind him as he turned with a faintly bemused smile.

"Please, rise. Thank you. You honor me," he managed gruffly and bowed at them all. "Thank you. Thank you, Stefania. I have to ask, though, do you all believe I'm incapable of deciding anything for myself where earth's concerned?"

"Don't be ridiculous. You're simply delegating," Rodney insisted, flowing smoothly up to his feet, John beside him, close enough for Daniel to touch. Daniel gave Jack a hand up Jack didn't actually need, but feeling Daniel's clammy fingers clutch his - then begin to release him - prompted Jack to catch a clue.

He kept hold of Daniel's hand, cognizant of the fact Rodney was doing the same on Daniel's other side.

***

"Regestere Charus meus, if you will permit me to speak to the hoi polloi on your behalf?" Stefan importuned, choosing the term deliberately just to provoke his King's lightning smile and shining eyes.

Catching Master Teal'c's molten dark gaze, Stefan winked at him in mutual understanding. They did so love to see Daniel smile.

Daniel nodded, openly amused, his silent _"Oh, sure, why not? You're all doing great so far,"_ making Stefan grin back at him.

"Thank you, Daniel. I think it incumbent on the people of the First World to recognize the facts ... and I would like to explain what is within the reach of the Farrah Lengharis. This would be my pleasure."

Stefan, of course, still 'heard' all the discord on the opposite side of the room. His ship's forcefields only muffled audible noise and his kind didn't need ears to hear nor hands to act; he threw out his hands anyway, a great admirer of his grandmother's sense of theatrics.

The forcefields vanished, and silence overtook the room. Mouths opened and closed but produced no sound, hands went to throats and more than a few of the First Worlders became quite panicked, calming only when they realized their breathing was unimpaired.

"You will listen. I will present ... more alternatives." Trusting his King's court to handle shielding this from broadcasting outside the room - which they did, the King's Meredith seeing to it personally - Stefan lowered his mind's barriers and reached out with his powerful natural telepathy. It resonated forth, touching the First Worlders. Stefan was inclined to school them a bit.

 _"I might remove every scrap of knowledge about the stargate from your memories, each and every one, make it forgotten. Do you not doubt my ability. This is what we do, my kind, to yours - we make you forget. It would be easy."_ Stefan mentally hissed the words out between his bared teeth, another wave of his hand making the First Worlders sit where they'd been standing, like children, hard on their buttocks. _"I might beg my King for his leave, to banish your every memory of looking upon him, you undeserving, you who presume so with your disbelief._

"Pay attention. Look around you. Ultimately, it matters not what you believe or think you know. It matters not what you think or do on your little backwater planet, even if it is the First World. The rest of us - that is, the Allied Great Races of four galaxies including yours - we believe; we tell you that Daniel is our King. _Daniel is my King._

"Offers are on the table. Think on them very carefully before you decide."

***

 _"He's pretty fucking hot,"_ O'Neill silently whispered to Teal'c as they watched StefanCatalin berate the assembly. Since Teal'c was well aware his friend needed distraction from a lingering urge to walk over and strike GeneralHankLandry - hard - he rewarded O'Neill and lifted one eyebrow.

In any event, he did not disagree.

 _"You like to watch him,"_ O'Neill added unnecessarily.

 _"I do. He moves ... well. I am equally enthralled with his vociferous defense of DanielJackson."_

'Vociferous', Teal'c saw O'Neill mouth before grinning at him sideways.

"He watches you, too."

Teal'c allowed himself a broad smirk.

"I have noticed."

"Good for you. Think any of them are learning anything?"

Teal'c didn't bother to reply, choosing instead to address the Tau'ri himself. He drew himself up and took a position at StefanCatalin's right hand, pleased when the Farrah Lengharis accepted his presence there with a polite sideways bow.

"I am Master Teal'c. I speak for the Free Jaffa Nation. The Jaffa, for the most part, are leaving this galaxy for Pegasus. Many others who struggled as former possessions of system lords or Ori priors are choosing to join our exodus. There are worlds in the Pegasus galaxy that are largely empty, needing only hard work and will to forge new civilizations. This opportunity would attract many Tau'ri, were they but offered the choice.

"Do not look at our King as if he has cost you something when he has provided such vast freedom."

"Well said, friend Teal'c," StefanCatalin remarked, applauding silently, long pale fingers outstretched. Teal'c was seized by a powerful impulse to see those hands on his bare skin and StefanCatalin smiled, teeth long, shiny, and white against his lush red mouth.

"You need time to consider and we grow weary of your company. Go, and know that we ... watch," he said, holding his hands high. Teal'c observed interestedly as, for a moment, nothing happened, then all the Tau'ri on the far side of the room vanished in flashes of white light.

When they were all gone, O'Neill cleared his throat lightly.

"Hey, um, Stef, did you put'em back where you got 'em?"

"I sent them all to Mile High Stadium, friend Jack," StefanCatalin replied, black eyes glittering with wicked good humor as he teased, provoking the laughter of several among them, DanielJackson for one.

"You're kidding. You are kidding, right?" O'Neill audibly hoped, hand on his forehead before dragging it over his face.

"I am ... kidding. Do not fear. All were returned to their points of origin. It would have been something to see, however, would it not?"

Daniel was still snickering. Teal'c could not actually articulate how much it meant to him that StefanCatalin understood how precious and rare were Daniel's open expressions of good humor. StefanCatalin appreciated them like the gift they were.

"Jack, your face!"

"Just considering the logistics of gettin'em all out of there and getting 'em home."

"I have heard you describe such situations as a clusterfuck, O'Neill," Teal'c contributed, mostly to prompt his King's broad grin, too quickly ducked away.

"I do not know this word," StefanCatalin said with an admirable attempt at a purely academic tone.

"It is a military term for those operations in which numerous failures and mistakes occur, a _korush mai'tac na'taia_ ," Teal'c concluded, leaving it to DanielJackson to offer "destroyed, damned and turned back on itself, tangled," when RodneyMcKay, JohnSheppard, and O'Neill looked to him for a translation.

"Harsh. Pretty phrase, though. I like it better than clusterfuck," JohnSheppard decided, visibly hesitating for a moment before cocking his head towards O'Neill. "Good old _Charlie Foxtrot_. Is that what you think this was?" he asked, motioning over his shoulder to the now empty side of the room.

"Hell, no! I think they're all great plans," O'Neill said heartily. "Still not real thrilled about the alien overlord thing or the whole public disclosure policy but I'm getting there."

"No, you're not," Daniel said, certainly, but he was grinning at O'Neill with fond affection.

"No, no, I'm not. Let me remind you. Covert operative, here, involved in a major covert operation. It becoming public knowledge kind of makes it an operational failure. It's a little ... difficult. Conceptually. To accept."

"You're smarter than you pretend when you're not being so insanely stupid. What's insane is how cute that is these days," RodneyMcKay bemoaned, shaking his head resignedly and looking sideways at JohnSheppard, who snickered at him while bumping their shoulders.

"You know you love us," JohnSheppard said, sounding very sure before he turned to grin at O'Neill. "You do know, you're pretty much untouchable, right? It's not like you're going to be taken out and shot for blowing the op."

"I'd like to see them try," RodneyMcKay decided while O'Neill grinned at them both, his mouth pulled up sideways in that manner that indicated he was laughing inside. "Besides, it's not alien overlords if they're not aliens."

"Are we going to be ... out ... as Ascended People, on earth?" O'Neill wondered next, demonstrating a fine grasp of irrelevancy yet again, Teal'c initially believed.

"We'll be letting ourselves in for a world of shit if we do," JohnSheppard pointed out. RodneyMcKay was quick to agree.

"We'll be seen as supernatural creatures. Possibly even angels. People will beg us to perform miracles and do healings and eventually start pray-"

"No." Daniel's voice halted RodneyMcKay in mid-word, quieting his Meredith's horrified voice to silence. "No. That will not happen. We'll have to make it clear, we're just people. Still people. Different, but people."

"You worry for no reason, my King. Your planetmates will receive you," StefanCatalin's low tones soothed, calming Daniel's equally horrified reaction, even when StefanCatalin made it clear he was prepared to ensure the people of earth behaved however their Agapitos Daan thought they should. This notion had Daniel's lips thinning in protest.

"Thank you, but no, my Stefan. No psychically changing anybody's mind." Daniel's order was very clear. He and RodneyMcKay still stood with their hands clutched in each other's; Teal'c had the impression Daniel would quite like some time to consider, to think recent events through.

"Hey, it's not like we live here, anyway. If there's somebody on earth we want to visit, then _whoosh!_ we visit, then it's home for supper, right?" RodneyMcKay said in what for him was a soothing tone.

"I don't want anybody praying for our help, Rodney. That's just ... No." Daniel visibly shuddered, although he looked calmer after RodneyMcKay's quick, assuring words. "Maybe we do have to be aliens," Daniel concluded with a grimace.

"People pray to aliens all the damned time," O'Neill noted with a surprising amount of good humor. "Thor, Dracula, here-"

"Jack!"

"Come on, Danny, let's- god, I can't believe I'm saying this- beam down, get something to eat, and let the dust settle. I could go for some food."

"That sounds good," RodneyMcKay seconded to JohnSheppard's quiet laughter.

"I will remain. StefanCatalin and I have much to discuss," Teal'c found himself saying, enjoying the way the Farrah Lengharis flushed and licked his teeth. Daniel smiled at him, apparently taking his meaning very well, his blue eyes bright, clear, and unconcerned.

"Thank you all, again," Daniel said to his Court, sharing his happy smile. "I look forward to meeting with you later. Shifu?"

"I am off to Abydos, Good Father, where I shall supervise installation of the zed-pee-em."

O'Neill and JohnSheppard groaned, RodneyMcKay bounced, but Daniel laughed out loud, hugging his stepson to him and kissing one pink cheek. Shifu giggled, too, the sound of a smaller child in the sweet noises, his sideways glance at RodneyMcKay informing Teal'c the young one intended both the tease and his father's laughter.

"Thank you, Shifu. I think you've made my day," RodneyMcKay said through his own laughter. Teal'c felt prompted to add his own efforts towards amusing his King.

"Is that not how we are to refer to the power modules, MeredithRodneyMcKay?" he asked in a completely serious tone, watching JohnSheppard's large grin and hearing Daniel's low chuckling.

"Yes, thank you, Master Teal'c," RodneyMcKay bowed at him quite elegantly. Teal'c had noticed with interest the amount of sheer presence the man now exuded, only enhanced by the blue robes he seemed to prefer wearing. Recognizing the style of the robes, Teal'c suspected it a matter of Daniel's preference. He approved, sending the thought to RodneyMcKay with a smile.

"Daniel? Wait? Do you- can you-" SamanthaCarter wound her arms around herself then shook them out, holding them out to Daniel. "Can you forgive me first before you go?"

"Sam." Daniel strode to SamanthaCarter and wrapped her up in a hard embrace. "There's nothing to forgive. Go, be happy."

"Yeah. Thanks. In Antarctica?" SamanthaCarter was trying to be gruff and irritable but Teal'c could hear grateful tears in her voice. "Thank you, Daniel. I love you, you know."

"I love you, too. Going now?"

"Janet's taking me. Somebody has to take care of our offworld 'gate teams," she pointed out, words muffled in the side of Daniel's neck. "Keep in touch? Come see me before you leave the planet? I'd like to talk."

"Sure, Sam, I promise. Sorry about the lightning bolt."

"Hey, if I could hurl lightning I'd be tempted sometimes, too," she said, laughing, too, when Daniel said with complete honesty "I always thought you could!"

An unknown knot in Teal'c's chest loosened as he watched Daniel's obvious pleasure. Teal'c was intensely pleased that SamanthaCarter had chosen at last to behave like Daniel's friend.

***

There occurred some intense debate on whether or not you could turn parts of your ascended self into credit cards or cash when you became corporeal, considering if you'd had any of either on you at the time of your initial ascension that meant it was part of your current energy anyway so why not and if not, wouldn't it be just an extension of the process of manipulating clothes and if that were so, wasn't that actually counterfeiting? And were you then leaving pieces of yourself behind?

The entire subject was enough to distract Daniel from realizing they were de-ascending into Jack's ex-wife's living room.

***

Jack realized about two seconds too late that he should have considered warning Sara - and Daniel - first. Sara was walking out of the kitchen, in pajamas and robe; Jack was suddenly aware he also hadn't given a lot of thought to the time of day in Colorado, earth. Sara dropped the coffee she'd been holding and let out a little shriek, Daniel's face had frozen over, and Rodney was scorching Jack with a blue-eyed laser glare that reminded Jack he'd better watch his step.

John stopped the spilling coffee with his mind - Jack had to say, he was impressed, it was really goddamned cool - leaving Sara's mug unbroken and full, innocently sitting on a side table. It was also John who kept Sara from falling, his steady hand on her elbow helping her to collapse on the sofa, instead.

"Damnit, Jack!" she gasped.

"I'm sorry, Sara, I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized while he seized Daniel's hand, only sorry when Daniel tried to yank their hands apart. "This is Daniel. My partner. Daniel, you remember Sara. These two clowns are Rodney McKay and John Sheppard, two of our best friends. Daniel, Sara will always be one of my best friends, too."

"Then I suppose you're accustomed to dealing with Jack's complete lack of courtesy and tact," Daniel replied smoothly, squaring his shoulders and granting Sara one of those diplomatic, _I'm only here because someone has a gun to my head_ pained smiles that made Jack's back teeth want to grind. Sara would love Daniel if he'd let her, he thought hard.

"Yes, I am," Sara said with her own pointed glare at Jack. He held up his hands - pulling Daniel's along with his - and shrugged.

"It's a gift."

"It's a curse," Sara corrected briskly and Daniel's wincing smile became a real, honest grin. Sara caught it, finally turning her gaze off Jack, and became as positively entranced by Daniel's smile as everybody else in four galaxies, apparently - and didn't Jack need some downtime to really think about all the implications of _that_ \- while Rodney shook his head and muttered "you suck, Jack."

"Yeah. Turns out I'm pretty gifted at that, too," Jack said complacently, rewarded when John started snickering. Daniel's face was turning red but he began laughing, shaking his head a little, like he couldn't believe what came out of Jack's mouth. Jack would have thought he'd be used to it by now.

Sara briefly groaned and covered her eyes, before sitting upright and graciously offering Daniel her hand.

"Congratulations," she said, the word a bare cover for the giggling she was fighting to suppress. "and thank you, Jack, for that mental picture," she added, fanning herself with her other hand.

John and Rodney were laughing outright by now - Jack felt more than saw the reassuring squeeze Rodney gave Daniel's shoulder before Daniel moved to accept Sara's outstretched fingers in an unusually careful grip.

"Oh, " Sara said, and the hairs stood up all along Jack's nape when little white tendrils of Daniel's ascended energy slipped out of Daniel and danced up Sara's arm, lingering at the base of her neck, her breasts and her right hip before it disappeared, melting into Sara's skin through her clothes.

Sara's lips trembled as she pulled Daniel's hand to her face and closed her eyes.

"It's gone, isn't it," she said, pressing a kiss to the backs of Daniel's fingers that made Daniel suck in a startled breath of air before Daniel crouched in front of her ... and Jack had to watch Daniel, had to fight to keep his mind off the implications of what Sara had just admitted.

"Yes, it is. It won't be back," Daniel pronounced gently, visibly astonished when Sara pulled him into a convulsive embrace.

"Oh, Daniel, thank you," she whispered into Daniel's neck, breath caught on a sob. "I was so scared. Of the process, not the destination, if you know what I mean? I was supposed to start chemo next week. I didn't know about my neck and hip - mets?" Sara questioned, voice teetering on tight and shaky.

"Very early." Daniel said like he was confessing, relieving Jack on a number of levels when he bravely hugged Sara back, giving her time to hide her face and take a few deep breaths. Sara, the woman he'd made his wife, the mother of his son, his much-loved, still-loved Sara ... who looked kind of amazing in Daniel's arms, actually. The idea of the two of them together was hot.

His Sara, who'd apparently had metastatic breast cancer before Daniel healed her, which was an entirely separate set of issues he couldn't bear to go near, the idea of Sara being that ill or worse, pre-deceasing him, leaving him the sole survivor of their shattered family.

"Daniel," Jack said, holding them both, leaning his grateful head on Daniel's strong shoulder. "Danny. Thank you."

***

"You're welcome," Daniel replied briskly and slipped out of this unwanted three-way embrace, shifting matter and energy so subtly he'd moved away and backwards - into Rodney and John - before Jack could stop him. Semi-ascension kept his skin from crawling with the strength of Jack's and Sara's love for each other. For the life of him, which was a metaphor Daniel internally faulted himself for using, given the circumstances, he could not see why Jack would choose to be with him over Sara. Daniel fully expected Jack would figure it out any moment now.

Rodney caught him up by the back of the neck, not exactly what he was anticipating from Rodney. Rodney made him stand there; Jack was already following. Daniel had an afterimage peripheral memory of Jack kissing Sara's cheek then Jack's hands were reaching for his face. The only thing that kept him from flinching was knowing how much he'd hurt Jack's feelings if he did.

Jack's hands were a little clammy, but Jack didn't let that stop him. He pulled their mouths together and laid a hard open-mouthed kiss on Daniel's lips, warm, slick tongue pushing into Daniel's mouth, insistant and playful. Daniel responded helplessly, like he always did - it was that part of himself he hated for being so weak, so susceptible, so overwhelmed - and he was only half-aware of Rodney's calming, kneading fingers.

"I love you, Daniel. Thank you," Jack repeated, looking him in the eyes after ending their kiss, his hands a lot warmer now.

"You're welcome? I hope you'll be very happy?" he wondered blankly, cringing inside with the deep hurt that briefly twisted Jack's face.

"Go on, make sure he gets it this time," Daniel heard John say and First One or not, he couldn't prevent it when John and Rodney helped Jack ascend him.

***

"What ... just happened?" Sara asked, swallowing so hard John was pretty sure she had barely kept from screaming. He gave Rodney a sideways glance; Rodney's eyes were shut and John was pretty sure he was mentally following whatever Jack was saying to Daniel. Taking a breath to overcome the urge to elbow Rodney and make him make the explanations, John took Sara's chilly fingers in his and urged her to sit back deeper on the couch, perching himself on the edge of it. He so didn't want to pick her up off the floor.

Rodney's eyes blinked open and he sighed, slowly focusing on Sara's pale face.

"Well. You want the short version? Daniel has issues. The long version includes the fact that he's an ascended human, which means he can convert his matter into pure energy and back again, whenever he wants. So am I, so is John, and so is Jack. We are not angels, we are not aliens, we are still humans. We were all born here on earth."

"You'll have to forgive Rodney, that's gotten to be a sore subject, lately," John found himself interceding, using his best drawl just to get Rodney to stop looking so sad, afraid it meant things weren't going so well for Daniel and Jack.

"A lot of people want to banish us from the planet," Rodney confirmed almost proudly, to John's amusement. "Pardon us for bursting right in, Mrs. O'Neill. It really was inconsiderate of Jack to simply-"

 _"Let it go, Rodney. Show some respect."_ John insisted, wondering when, precisely, he'd assumed liability for Jack O'Neill's faults, feeling Rodney's deep irritation with the situation turn on him then as suddenly disappear.

 _"I'm sorry. Is that what I'm doing? I don't mean to. Forgive me, John."_

John could, and did, but.

 _"Rodney, I don't appreciate the fact that you feel the same fucking way about me that Daniel feels about Jack. You can't see why I'm with you and you expect me to leave you sooner or later. I guess time will eventually prove you wrong, you pessimistic son of a bitch. You and Daniel, both. Good thing we're almost immortal now. Should be plenty of time to prove it."_

 _"Good thing I love you, too, you mean."_

John made sure to take Rodney's hand, drawing Rodney down - insistently - to sit beside him when Rodney would have yanked his hand away.

"Oh, we're going to be out out?" Rodney snarked but sat next to John, thigh to thigh.

"Of course we are. Kinda beyond the reach of the regs now, remember? Why shouldn't we be?"

"Huh. Okay." Rodney didn't say anything else but he was pleased. John gave himself a mental pat on the back and tried to relax. Making public displays of affection before relative strangers was never going to be his favorite thing to do, but he'd do it for Rodney. He didn't want Rodney to have any cause to doubt him, not ever again.

"Would you like some coffee?" Sara offered next, seeming remarkably unfazed. It was a quality John admired, and he had to laugh with her at Rodney's orgasmic "Oh my god, yes!"

***

 _"Daniel, there's a broken place in you where you don't understand that love, real love, 'bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things'. I recognize that place because I used to be there. You got me out and I left you behind._ Again," screamed Jack's mind, because he'd hated himself every time it had ever happened and it had happened too, too often. Daniel hated hearing Jack mentally enumerate each and every incident and wished he could protect himself from what Jack was thinking.

Nowhere to hide, nothing to be hidden, not here. Daniel hated it.

 _"You accepted the broken parts of me. You've seen me at my worst and you've loved me the best you knew how and I'm sorry I didn't appreciate the efforts you made. Appreciating you now, believe me."_

 _"That's a little condescending, isn't it?"_ Daniel fired back, finding his voice with a vengeance as they coalesced into being ... glowing squids hanging somewhere on the dark side of the moon. Daniel was dying to know how Jack had managed to get them here but he felt too naked to ask, too close to self-destruction and to doing something stupid and incautious.

 _"You want to push me away to get me to leave you, so I'll already be gone. Then it won't be something you're still waiting for, because you're sick to your soul of waiting. Daniel, I know how that feels, too. It's just not going to happen. I won't leave you. We are not over."_

 _"Why? You could - Sara obviously - you could be happy, Jack!"_

 _"Daniel, why the hell are you so goddamned sure I'm going to be unhappy with you?"_

 _"Because, because ... don't make me think about this. I can't."_ And he couldn't. Really. He tried to make Jack see. That would mean admitting, revealing, explaining. He'd been withholding vital parts of himself from this man for so long it had become a habit; he'd pretended-

 _""Because_ you've _been so unhappy, even though you and I were together. You were miserable and I didn't know. You never let on that you were so close to the ledge. That hurts me, Daniel. Maybe I deserve it, I don't know._

 _"Things are different now, and your days of hiding shit from me are over. I told you. I'm here, I'm not going away, so you might as well start telling me everything."_

Daniel shivered, hard chills shaking the skin he didn't currently possess. He wanted so badly to call for Rodney he felt the words ache in his nonexistent teeth; he resisted, only because he wanted to be fair to Jack.

He shook, frozen to the core by the depths of his own grudges, the many things he'd been holding against Jack, offenses both petty and major. He was really very small inside, Daniel feared, understanding he might get past some incidents but he never forgave. He'd never learned how. Forgiveness was an ability he'd lost as a child. Part of him would always resent his parents for dying and dropping him into a world of pain. He had seen forgiveness modeled so seldom - before fairly recently - was it any wonder he was so slow at fully embracing the concept?

Daniel wished he wasn't making excuses.

Jack circled him, drawing them together into a serene pool of bright light, Jack filling him with heat and love and acceptance, carried in Jack's silently whispered reassurances and questions.

 _"-I know, Danny. I get it, I do. You're scared, scared to let me see you because you think you won't be enough. That also boils down to 'you don't trust me' but we'll get to that some other day. You don't trust yourself much, either, do you?"_

Daniel realized Jack knew him a lot better than he'd thought. At about the time, he realized he was, in fact, terrified: on so many levels and about so many subjects he was sure he was shaking apart every time he let himself think about-

 _"It's okay, it's okay to be scared and it's okay to show me. You taught me that, Daniel. You taught me. I promise, this time I'm right here and I will not leave you._

***

 _'It came to pass that the undying one went into the wilderness, where he fell sore afraid of what he had wrought, for those doings had remade the very heavens and there were none like unto him, our Beloved King. Such was his despair that his skies trembled; the people fell to their knees and loved him more, devoted in their promise to protect him, heart, soul, honor, and faith.'_

 ____The Forty-First Vision of Benin of Lantea (excerpted)_

***

 _"That's it, Danny, get it out,_ Jack encouraged and held onto Daniel even harder, letting the last spasms of Daniel's terror ripple through him. Glad he wasn't physical - he'd be puking his guts up, for one - Jack waited for Daniel to calm down and went on talking.

So to speak.

 _"It's okay, you're going to be okay. I've got you and I'm not letting go."_

 _"You really aren't, are you."_ For the first time in a while, Jack got the impression Daniel was smiling at him. It felt like a weak, watery smile, but it was real. Daniel was relieved. Grateful. Glad Jack was there with him.

That sensation alone was enough to rock Jack; throw in the strength of his fucking relief - he hadn't been absolutely sure Daniel even wanted him around - and Jack felt like he was the one who needed to be held together. Right now.

"Thank you, Jack. I do love you." Daniel reached out into him, fusing them together somehow until they were basking on the fringes of something so vast that Jack couldn't quite see it, even with ascended sight. He found it beautiful anyway, especially when Daniel explained it as something he couldn't explain. Jack was filled with a sense of welcome, of completion, of coming home when he looked there ... then he was de-ascending naked on a very large bed in an empty room. He couldn't be bothered to care where they were, not when Daniel, who was equally naked, pushed him to his back and crawled over him.

Jack couldn't even be shocked when his natural reaction was to spread his thighs.

 _"Daniel, please."_

***

 _"Yeah, that's it,"_ Rodney caught himself thinking. He kept his eyes closed for a few more moments, just to bask in Daniel's glow and thank the universe that Jack O'Neill was making his friend happy. Finally. He squeezed John's fingers and made a better attempt at acting normal.

That plan defenestrated itself with Sara O'Neill's strained question.

"What is that?"

"Huh. What do you..." Rodney wondered what she could possibly be sensing, unless when Daniel had healed her- "Hmm." Presumably, Daniel could have left metaphorical pieces of himself all over three or four galaxies if that were the case. "On second thought, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. What do you feel?"

"Warmth. I felt very cold for a few minutes, almost sick to my stomach. Now I feel ... warm." Sara O'Neill fanned her face for a moment and blushed when Rodney looked at her.

"When you say warm, you don't mean, uh, warm, do you?" he asked, trying not to leer at the General's ex-wife by virtue of looking at John instead, not that that helped any. John's pupils were blown wide and his face was pink. He was obviously very aware of what Rodney was picking up from Daniel and Jack. "Wait, don't answer that. Uh, you know what, I think John and I are going to take off. Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. O'Neill. It was very nice to meet you."

"Wow, you really are Canadian," John said like he was coming out of a coma, shaking himself before he gave Rodney a pleading glare to get them out of here before this went any further than just 'warmth'.

Rodney completely agreed. They turned into light before John could finish saying his own polite goodbyes.

***

 _"Where the hell are we going?"_

 _"Not to the mountain, don't panic."_

 _"I wasn't._ Hey, Rodney, lookit the little bed, it's just like being home ... whose bed is this, anyway? And where are we?"

"Daniel's. In Colorado. He won't mind."

"Mind wha- oh! Oh, god, do that again! Ah! Wha- what if him and Jack co- come, god, no, don't, not yet. So goo- goo- good! God, Rodney!"

 _"I do like it when you're incoherent."_

 _"I noooootiiiiiiiiiced!"_

***

"I perceive our King is no longer troubled," Stefan murmured.

Teal'c had long since shortened his use of the name, even in his own mind. The beautiful Farrah Lengharis lay naked on Teal'c's chest and stared down at his face. Long black hair fell along each side of Teal'c's face and neck, every silken strand teasing his sensitive skin. Stefan's face was so near he breathed out over Teal'c's lips, inhaling as if he tasted Teal'c on the air...

Being remarkably aroused, Teal'c was some moments answering.

"Daniel's fears speak to the goodness in his soul," he said quietly, extending his ascended perception, understanding Stefan's powerful natural abilities had done the same. "They are on board?" He was only a little surprised.

"Any ship in our Fleet would offer quarters to our King. How could the flagship not provide?" Stefan attempted not to look smug; he failed. "Our Daniel will not approve, but Grandmother gave up her own suite and ordered it made ready should the King require. She will be very pleased he is ... requiring."

Teal'c had to laugh, filling his hands with Stefan's hair and rubbing it over his face. Stefan's eyes darkened and he licked over his teeth; Teal'c was glad Stefan liked what he was doing. So did he, especially when Stefan took a handful of his own hair and stroked it over Teal'c's chest.

"And what do you require, Master Teal'c?" Stefan asked before licking at Teal'c lower lip. Teal'c was powerless against his groan as the sharp edge of a tooth dragged a tingling furrow along his soft flesh. Stefan hummed satisfaction at him, licking across both his lips and occasionally suckling at them or biting, but never breaking the skin. As a display of control, it moved him; Teal'c was well aware of how very sharp Stefan's teeth were. As a method of increasing his sexual hunger, it was inspired.

Turning Stefan's lithe body beneath his, Teal'c decided to show the Farrah Lengharis how Jaffa kissed.

***

 _'"Benin,", I was told as I marveled. "It is on you to teach these of thee our King's beloved, that they may always offer him sanctuary. So well loved our King, who opens the ways. You must not fail." Verily, I say unto you, my heart quailed on hearing this, for it had been given to me to know the days of our King not due until long after the passing of my flesh. It was on me to question how one poor servant could see such a thing done to last._

 _'"You will do it thusly as we tell you, but of this you will not record, nor of those powers to keep," and so I do not, save to mention my fear that my efforts might go ill and my unknowable King would not someday have the comfort of the word._

 _'The people will love their King more than you know,' I was promised._

 _'How I long to see that beloved day come to pass.'_

 ____The Forty-First Vision of Benin of Lantea (excerpted)_

***

Daniel was beyond words, beyond thought, beyond just about everything except concepts like 'good' and 'more' and if it got any better than this he was going to lose molecular cohesion. Jack was pulling him in, wrapping him up in arms and legs, shuddering beneath him, yielding ... wanting all of Daniel, everything Daniel could give. Jack was _gone_ , pleasure sheeting off of him like storms, like lightning in Daniel's brain every time Jack writhed and pushed onto him. Wanting him. Jack really wanted him.

Bad.

"Jack!" Daniel hooked his hands around Jack's shoulders and gave in to his longstanding urge to just fuck Jack through the mattress; Jack responded by coming so hard he started howling, head thrown back and bared neck inviting Daniel's open mouth. The clenching spasms of Jack's ass did Daniel in. There was no way to feel this amazing and keep wearing skin...

***

 _"'The people will love their King more than you know',"_ Stefan quoted, licking over Teal'c's strong neck before lightly sinking his teeth. Teal'c responded beautifully, arching up into him and releasing with a roar. The biochemical effects of absorbing blood and semen hit Stefan, a pure white rush that instantly enhanced his psionic talents before igniting his own release.

 _"'The people will love their King',"_ he managed, barely, to make it an order, just as their immense pleasure overtook him.

***

 _"Rodney, Rodney, please! Fuck! God! Please!"_ John was not ashamed to admit he was begging. Rodney had him ass high on Daniel's little bed, eating him out while he fingered John's cock and balls. John followed up his pleas with _"if I don't get your cock up my ass in the next ten seconds I'm going to ascend then de-ascend around you."_ As a threat, it worked, prompting Rodney to finally enter him.

"Don't go slow. I need you," he urged, jolted when his words apparently went directly to Rodney's hips, only Rodney subsequently froze. _"No!, don't stop. Keep doing that! Fuck me!"_

"Jesus, you're bossy," Rodney complained but took John at his word, thank god, slamming into John like their lives depended on it. John luxuriated in the hard pounding, letting out little grunts of delirious pleasure when Rodney shoved into his prostate.

 _"So good. You're so good, Rodney. Love you so much."_

 _"God, John, I love you, too."_

***

 _'I was given to know these dreams and portents would soon be ending, there being one yet, the forty-second. What I was privileged to see lifted my spirit with wonder; I beheld the Empire of Light at the dawn of peace. Considerable the might of my wish to see these days come to pass in my lifetime, these days of prophecy, the days of the King._

 _'Of those glorious days I shall no speak no further, save to comfort those of us whom needs must await them. Know you these doings shall be shaped by our King and not this simple scribe. My faith will be satisfied, of this I am assured._

 _''The people will love their King'.'_

 ____The Forty-Second Vision of Benin of Lantea (excerpted)_

***

Sara hung up the phone, having called in sick to work. She'd told them quite honestly she was too shaken up; they'd assumed it was from her plane's recent rough landing in D.C. and she let them think so, as she couldn't exactly admit why she was really going back to bed.

Naked.

Lying back against her pillows, Sara spread her legs and closed her eyes. Idly running the tips of her fingers over her face and neck, her thoughts were on the four - count 'em, _four_ \- incredibly attractive men she'd had standing in her living room earlier while she'd sat there in her pajamas and tatty old robe. John and Rodney were so outwardly different but both so ... well, hot. It was easy to imagine them burning up the sheets together.

Dragging the pad of one finger over her bottom lip, Sara smirked as she considered Jack, her dear handsome Jack, so caught up in his Daniel ... and, oh, beautiful Daniel, with his perfect mouth and drowning blue eyes...

Sara could still feel that moment when Daniel's energy had soaked through her skin and entered her.

Since she was alone in the house, Sara allowed herself a moan and feathered her fingers over her breasts. Her nipples tingled, stiffening before she ever touched them. The sensation throbbed all the way to her clit.

Then she got distracted by the fact that her lumpectomy incision was gone - completely gone, not merely a healed scar.

The single sob that slipped out shouldn't have surprised her, Sara thought, hoping Daniel knew how utterly, eternally grateful she was. With the welcome feeling that her breasts were actually _hers_ again, Sara cupped them in her palms and smiled at their slight sag. That, along with a few stretch marks, was the precious evidence of her having carried Charlie and Daniel, of course, would never change that. She didn't even have to look. She could feel the familiar paper-thin lines when she touched.

She ran her hands down to her thighs, pulling at them a bit until she felt more exposed, which had her pushing her ass into the mattress. Her skin felt good to her hands, soft; she lingered over her inner thighs and the wings of her pelvis, indulging ... eventually driven back to her breasts, stoking her arousal by gently pinching her nipples until she was squirming with increasing pleasure.

***

"Not again," Kate said so softly Elizabeth was sure she hadn't been meant to hear when that thigh-loosening arousal started pulsing through them again. Hurt to think Kate regretted being with her, Elizabeth failed to prevent her hard flinch.

"You wish we hadn't-"

" _You_ wish we hadn't-"

"That isn't true," Elizabeth insisted, grabbing Kate by the lapels of her jacket and yanking her in for a kiss. Kate's mouth was soft and sweet, needy under Elizabeth's, already opening for her tongue. Feeling rather like a budding dominatrix, Elizabeth pushed Kate down onto the bed in the quarters Stefania had given them to share - the Bogdana was obviously aware and approved of what had happened between Elizabeth and Kate - and then Elizabeth kissed Kate some more, adoring the way Kate tasted.

Finally breaking the kiss, Elizabeth knelt up over Kate's body, trying to remove her shirt and jacket without looking like she was tearing them off.

"I do want you, Katherine. Want your hands on my skin."

"It's just - is it _you_? Or is it whatever we're picking up from-"

"It's not, and it is. I don't feel forced. Do you?"

"Only in a good way," Katherine said wryly, gasping with Elizabeth when she helped free Elizabeth's breasts. Kate plumped them in her hands before rubbing her thumbs over Elizabeth's nipples, which ached for more as they tightened.

"God, that feels good. Kate, don't you want-"

"Of course, I want you, but are you going to withdraw from me afterwards like you can't stand the idea that we-"

"That wasn't why. I didn't want you to feel pressured," Elizabeth said absently, pushing Kate's shirt and bra up far enough to bare Kate's nipples for her mouth. "Mmm." She positively loved sucking at the breast. Who knew?

"Ah, god, 'Lizabeth. Harder. God. Wasn't pressured, could have said no ... except I couldn't. Not to you! Ah! Yeah, make them sting!"

Elizabeth tongued the stiff flesh inside her mouth and gave it some dedicated sucking, Kate's nipple pressed between the roof of her mouth and held in her teeth. Kate _writhed_ , throwing her legs open and making noises that had Elizabeth's pelvis throbbing.

"Want to suck you all over," Elizabeth promised, replacing her mouth with her fingers and giving Kate's puffy nipples a firm pinch. "Every night from now on. Kate. Move in with me when we go home to Atlantis?"

Kate smiled at her brilliantly. Elizabeth had to start blinking.

"Yes."

***

 _'Those who are given to wonders will see many such great and small. Our Beloved One shall keep his Faith unto him, flesh of his undying flesh. Peace shall be won on the side of Light.'_

 ____The Forty-Second Vision of Benin of Lantea (excerpted)_

***

"Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah," Jack managed, still not quite over feeling like one giant throbbing nerve, even after Daniel had softened, pulled out of him, and fallen over at his side.

"It's ... fun being the King," Daniel confided to Jack's shoulder; the tone of his voice made Jack smile, he sounded so amazed beneath the self-directed mockery in his choice of words.

"Yeah? That's good. Know what else?"

"What else?"

He turned, drawing Daniel close until they lay body to body, face to face.

"It's fun being the King's Faith, kept unto him, 'flesh of his undying flesh'. I love you, Daniel."

Daniel blinked, then smiled - the real one, bright and full of happy wonder that reached all the way to his shining eyes.

 _"You do, don't you. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing you say it._

"I love you, too, Jack. And that's a rather literal interpretation of Benin's last prophecy. I think I like it."

"Hey, we're literal guys," Jack pointed out contentedly, smiling back because life didn't get much better than this as far as he was concerned. Naked Daniel in his arms, on a big soft bed ... this had been the sum total of his ambition when he'd retired and all he ever wanted when he'd dreamed of making things right with Daniel. "Have I thanked you, Danny?"

"For?" Daniel invited, pasting on his 'patiently waiting' face, belied by his twitching lips and laughing eyes. Jack considered himself a lucky goddamned bastard, all things considered, and willingly played along.

"Mmm, so many many things. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for opening the Ways. Thank you for sticking with me, for ascending me, for letting me back in your life, for giving me the time of day-"

"I really have no idea about the time," Daniel said firmly just before he started kissing Jack and kissing him hard. Jack found himself rolled over, wrapped up, and cradled in Daniel's arms like some kind of romance novel heroine; he was loving every minute of it. Curling his tongue around Daniel's, Jack sucked with a moan, encouraging Daniel to tongue-fuck his mouth and delighted when Daniel obliged.

***

Stefania leaned back her head and cackled out loud; Lya observed this with her own broad smile. It didn't take a telepath, which they both were, to feel as if they were basking in love and devoted adoration.

Their Daniel, their First One of the Fifth Race was really quite extra-ordinary in his abilities, Ascended and innate.

"And he really has no idea," Stefania agreed, completing Lya's thought with the casual ease of friends. "The best part, is it not? That he's so humble."

"A quality he could do well with less of, if you ask me," Lya insisted quietly. "I watched him die." Stefania drew the scene from her mind and grieved with her. Knowing there were things that had to happen didn't make them any easier to watch. "He has spent himself too freely. 'The sword forged in death', indeed, may our Daniel forgive me. It gives me great ... solace ... to see him ... so rewarded."

"Yes," the Bogdana of the Farrah Lengharis said, her will powerful with comfort, sanding down the rough edges of Lya's raw guilt. Lya let herself be soothed - in the physical world, Stefania had gripped her hand - and Lya rather enjoyed the sensation of not being among the oldest and wisest, for once. She felt very young.

"These days are our reward, too, my dear, do not forget. 'The Empire of Light at the dawn of peace'. Blessed are we. Blessed to live in these days. I cannot wait to know him better, him and his Legiae Lux," Stefania said next, a smile in her voice. "I must say, I do so adore Jack, Atlantis' Meredith, her Imperator and Daniel's Master Teal'c," she continued, startling Lya into open laughter. She, too, had been sweetly, deeply taken by Daniel's choice of army, touched and admiring of how much they all loved their King.

Their King, bless him, loved them all right back. For telepaths, it was a marvelous thing.

 _"Forgive me, Sisters. A message emanated from the Box and instructed me to bring it here."_ Anteaus hailed from an approaching vessel. Lya could see it in her mind's eye, Anteaus arriving in a small silvery slip of a craft that tucked itself beneath a wing of the  Ghennadie like a baby bird coming home.

Lya hoped her old friends would forgive her for first thinking an indelicate "you're kidding." The Box had been stuck in temples or used as a capstone for public buildings since before recorded time. When touched, it recited, psychically speaking, all forty-two prophecies of Benin and that was all, although legend had it the Box used to threaten people if they refused to leave it within public access. The Box itself resisted every scan and test devised by a curious people and then mainly passed into a novelty among Lya's people. As a child, the Box had captured Lya's imagination. She'd been very moved by the story the Box impressed on its listeners and there had been a time she'd wished to be part of that magical story; that dark day had come to pass and she'd longed to never have wished so. It turned out resurrecting Daniel and SG-One didn't erase the howling agony of having psychically felt them die...

... except all that pain was being drained away and a sweet feeling of peace was swelling over them, even over Anteaus as he docked and prepared to board.

 _"Is that our King?"_ he asked Lya silently, his wonder plain. _"That is our Daniel?"_

 _"It is. That is our beloved Daniel. And his Jack,"_ Lya added with a private mental smirk at Stefania that had the old woman snickering again, especially when their sensitive minds passed over the bursting stars full of fiery passion they perceived as the other Fifth Race Ascendants, they who loved with such ferocious humanity, amazing, fearless, and strong.

Lya carefully excluded herself from noticing Stefania's grandson out of deference to the Bogdana, who noticed, naturally.

"Stefan is my heir. How can I fail to approve? Master Teal'c is a Fifth Race Atlantean, the Jaffa Ascendant. Besides, it does my heart good to see Stefan so ... engaged with his life. Of late the one has grown weary." Dreading, planning, awaiting her death, Stefania avoided saying. Lya heard it anyway.

 _"They do all seem well-pleased with each other, my friend. I find much solace, indeed,"_ Stefania added, the tone behind the words so wicked and full of innuendo that Lya could not help but laugh out loud again. Anteaus was so surprised his eyes were still wide when he entered the room, arms folded around the Box.

"Welcome, Anteaus. Hmm, I have not seen you or the Box since I was a girl. It spoke to you?"

"Bogdana Stefania. It is good to see you. Yes, Lya, it did."

Anteaus effortlessly projected the scene while Lya supplied the background. Most recently, which was to say, for the last few hundred years, the Box sat in the Council chamber, stuck under a bench and available to any citizen who chose to approach it. On rare occasion, an off-worlder would request a viewing; the Box was considered something of a tourist destination in some circles and a ceremonial matter in others.

"I was in the chamber preparing for a meeting when the Box said "'Deliver me unto to the King'," Anteaus reported, seeming much calmer now that he'd made the thing Lya's problem.

Lya sighed and accepted the Box. It was not heavy, although it was solid, and seemed to be made of some mineral similar to naquadah, but not quite; it was a perfect cube that rested uncomfortably in the arms with its harsh sharp angles.

"I must say, I have lived in dread of Jack O'Neill learning about the Box. I fear we of the Nox are in for quite a tiresome ordeal," Anteaus volunteered unexpectedly; the Bogdana burst out laughing and it took until then for Lya to recognize how well she was being managed and how cheerful Stefania made people just by being around them. Not even Anteaus was immune to the effect. The Farrah Lengharis elder was so skilled and effortless with her telepathy and mood-handling that Lya felt even more like a cossetted child. It was a novel sensation, to be sure.

"My dears, I shall do what I can to protect you, but I submit you are right to be concerned," Stefania said, wiping her eyes. "Perhaps I might prevail upon our King to intercede on your behalf."

"Our King is a man of many and great talents, but to ask him to control Jack O'Neill would be unreasonable," Lya demurred. Neither did she want to trouble Daniel with such relative trivia, although she suspected Anteaus' prediction would inevitably become truth. Lowering her head, Lya giggled helplessly, already hearing Jack O'Neill in her head. She drew Anteaus' shock, aware he still found her open laughter unusual, almost aberrant.

 _"Deliver me unto the King,"_ the Box chose that moment to speak, the strength and power behind the psychic demand quite startling. The Box had never felt alive or sentient before; those were the sensations Lya was getting from it now and a quick glance at Stefania confirmed what Lya's own talents and senses were informing.

"Well. This is new," she said slowly, closing her eyes and calling for her King. _"Daniel? I need you at your earliest convenience, please?"_

 _"Lya? I'll be there soon,"_ he said, no less than she'd expected. _Perhaps Thor should be here, too_ she thought; it seemed no sooner had the faint wish crossed her mind than her Asgard friend appeared.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, Supreme Commander," the Bogdana murmured. "We await our King. You are familiar with the artifact in Lya's possession?"

"The Box of Benin's Prophecies. I have seen it," Thor informed them.

"Did it speak to you, Thor?"

"It did," the Asgard replied expressionlessly, but Lya had been Thor's friend for a long while and recognized his piqued curiosity.

"And you could hear it telepathically?" Stefania persisted.

"Yes."

"As a rule, we of the Farrah Lengharis do not ... read ... the Asgard. This has always been so for two reasons. Our custom to take your kind on your word alone, and because it would require effort. Reading an Asgard is not done casually or on a whim for us. Not impossible, mind, but difficult. Is it not amazing that this Box could speak so into your mind, ours, and Lya's people, too?" Stefania said, examining Thor with interest.

"At the time, I was quite amazed. However, our King seems to find this an effortless matter as well. I remain ... amazed."

"Indeed." The Bogdana bowed at Thor and Thor bowed back, both of them startled upright when the Box repeated its demand.

"Deliver me unto the King."

"I see," Thor said when the echoes faded. Lya had not time to ask for specifics before Ascended began appearing in the room.

***

"Lya, are you all right?"

"Daniel, yes. I am well. Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Oh, look, it's Antaeus. Hi, Antaeus! Hi, Lya! I see you have ... a box. Look, Daniel."

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"Daniel. Please. The Nox has a box."

"Oh, god." This from Daniel himself, with John and Rodney joining in, backed by a pained grunt from Teal'c and followed up with a trio of "oh, dear"s from Thor, Stefan and the Bogdana.

Jack opened his arms to Daniel and shrugged, brown eyes dancing with laughter.

"Come on, now, you know you love me," he said and Daniel tried, he really did try not to laugh - he didn't want to encourage Jack - but he just couldn't help it. Sometimes, Jack just killed him with this stuff.

"Okay, you get one more. Get it out of your system," he said, barely keeping a straight face.

"Hey, Daniel, are there locks on the box that belongs to the Nox?"

That was it, Daniel was done. He covered his mouth with his hand because he hated being rude to Lya and Anteaus, but he snickered all the same.

"Lya, Anteaus, please forgive me-" he began, lips still twitching as he got a hold of himself and turned to them.

"My King, if it makes you smile it requires no forgiveness," Anteaus said with great dignity, shooting a poisonous glare past Daniel that landed directly on Jack. "However."

"Hey, I'm done," Jack said, ignoring the snorts of disbelief from what Jack was calling 'the peanut gallery' inside Daniel's head. " _Promise, Danny. I'll try to be good._ So, Lya, what's up with the square container?"

As if it had been waiting for someone to ask, voice and presence poured out of the Box.

"Deliver me unto the King."

"Huh," Rodney said and prevented Daniel from taking the Box when Lya held it out. _"Wait. Let me see it first,"_ Rodney ordered in that peremptory tone that told Daniel he'd better be paying attention. Rodney gestured for Lya to keep holding the Box, passing his hands over it but not touching.

Daniel felt a wrench in his mind that astonished him; the Meredith of Atlantis reached for his City and called on her help.

***

 _"Analysis. Oxygen, sixty percent. Carbon, eighteen percent. Hydrogen, ten percent. Naquadah, five percent. Nitrogen, three percent. Calcium, one point five percent. Phosphorus, one percent. Sulfur, point two five percent, Magnesium, point zero five percent. Point seven zero percent Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron, and trace amounts of Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Trinium and Bromine. Method of cohesion unknown. It is a perfect cube, power source unknown. I sense no ill will from it, my Meredith."_

"Neither do I," Rodney said with a weird look on his face. "Okay, wow, and maybe, yuck?" John was there before the echo died, aware of Rodney's genuine, if faint, revulsion. Rodney stepped back into John's chest and John was glad to hold him, still trying to assess the level of threat.

"Rodney? _What's wrong? Is it dangerous?"_

"No, only to himself, apparently," Rodney said and John got it, reading into Rodney's thoughts and recognizing the same thing Rodney had so suddenly extrapolated.

"You think it's him, you think it's Benin himself, turned into- this?" Daniel said, his tone arrested. "Those are, with a couple of exceptions, the constituent elements that make up the human body. You think this is Benin, who did this to make sure his prophecies would never be lost."

"You didn't touch it when you saw it before," Rodney said back, doing that thing he did when he considered all the aspects and started making intuitive sideways leaps; John had always loved watching Rodney do that and feeling the lightning flash in Rodney's mind just made it even better.

He was loving this whole ascended thing. It was made of win. Even with the mortal remains of some poor bastard Ancient in the room.

Lya, Stefan, and Stefania got it next. John could practically hear them picking thoughts from the air. Lya said something that John was pretty sure was a Nox expletive, if there were such things. Jack O'Neill made a face and shuddered but took the Box from her hands when she held it away from herself; he staggered a little when the Box said "Deliver me unto the King" with its intense telepathic echo.

"I didn't touch it. I didn't have to, to hear the prophecies. I was ... ascended at the time. I didn't touch it." Daniel shook his head a little and snorted under his breath and looked at Rodney. John put him and Rodney at Daniel's shoulders, hearing Rodney's need just as clearly.

"Rodney, if I do touch him, if what I think will happen, happens, well, that's- I don't want to do that, Rodney, that's- raising the dead, Biblical! I'm not- I'm not-"

"No, you're not. You're still you. Daniel Jackson, human. Tau'ri. The First One of the Fifth Race. You're still you, Daniel. You aren't doing miracles, here. Well, not exactly. I mean, it's all quantifiable energy even if we don't know what that energy is, exactly. And you aren't doing anything alone," Rodney assured his friend, so pleased with John for being right there with him, as if John would be anywhere else.

"You aren't doing it alone," John echoed, promising Daniel.

"No, you aren't. We're all right here," Jack said quietly, setting the Box on the deck and coming around to Daniel's side.

"I'll be responsible for whatever he does with the rest of his life." Daniel sounded a little bleak and Jack leaned into him, putting an arm around his waist and ignoring John's and Rodney's hovering presences.

The three of them ascended their King together, feeling his need for comfort, taking off for a few moments just to let their energies entwine and issue reminders. Daniel didn't do anything alone, never would again, they weren't going to look at him any differently, they weren't going to do anything stupid like worship him, either, get real, and they would still be there, would always be there, regardless. These were promises John surprised himself by meaning absolutely; it hadn't taken him long to fall crazy in love with Daniel Jackson too. He'd long since stopped blaming his feelings on Rodney and started finding reasons of his own.

 _"This was his choice,"_ Jack reminded Daniel, inner voice stern but infinitely gentle. _"Benin saw what he was doing as his duty, same as you did when you shot out that window on Kelowna and stopped that explosion. Duty."_

 _"Jack-"_ Daniel protested before John put a metaphorical hand over Daniel's mouth.

 _"Duty, to protecting lives. Jack's life. Your team's. A dying civilization or an entire fucking ungrateful world. It's what you do, Daniel. It's what Benin did, what he saw as his duty. You can't dishonor that,"_ John demanded when he intended to advise, feeling a little more strongly about the subject than he'd realized.

Rodney got it. John could feel it.

 _"Like riding a nuclear weapon into a hive ship, hmm, John? Daniel, Benin didn't go into this expecting you to bring him back to life. He never hints at it, although he says a few times how much he wants to be here now. This is clearly what he wanted although to give him credit he never asks you to re-animate him. That's- pretty awesome, when you think about it. And you're not raising the dead, because he's not dead. You feel that, right?"_ Rodney asked the Nox and Farrah Lengharis next, his tone surprisingly gentle as he shared his thoughts.

 _"Not alive, but not dead. It- what I feel has changed from when I saw it before,"_ Stefania said, doing that thing she did when she kept them all calm, showing them all mental pictures of herself as a very young woman, a Princess in her court making a ceremonial visit to the Nox homeworld to greet the Nox council and view the Box.

It said a lot, John thought, for how much they all liked the old Furling lady that they let her distract them. Even Rodney. Calm would never be Rodney's default state, but he'd do calm for Daniel, apparently.

He was also still allowing John to hold him, still talking to Atlantis in his head.

 _"It does not meet the classic definition of life, my Meredith, but it is organic and it does emit energy."_

 _"It has changed. It emanated no detectable energy when I saw it last,"_ Lya confirmed quietly, and John was so glad she was a telepath because he couldn't imagine hearing it said out loud that Daniel had likely induced this, himself, earlier. Love and passion amplified by Daniel's unique talent for Ascension had given sensitives all over the galaxy a ... buzz was how John interpreted it. Daniel shook his head.

 _"It's not miracles, you said. Quantifiable,"_ Daniel was almost begging, wanting badly to be reassured, although John wasn't sure what he needed to hear. All John could do was hug him, inside their minds, while Rodney and Jack did the same. Daniel relaxed slowly. They really did make him feel better; John found that gratifying and was equally pleased Jack was stepping up.

Of the four of them, John would have anticipated Jack to have the most problems with the theological implications of resurrection. From what he'd been told, the guy had been a faithful Catholic before his son's death. John thought - privately - that more than half Daniel's problem with this lay in his fear that Jack might eventually freak out about who - and what - Daniel had become.

 _"Charus meus, be at ease. Permit us to assist you?"_ Atlantis begged very prettily.

"Us?"</i> Daniel asked a little suspiciously, which kind of made John wish he could throw his arms around his City and squeeze her tight. Damn, she was good, giving Daniel something else to wonder about.

 _"I love you, too, my Imperator. Trust me, my King?"_

 _"Always, Mati."_

***

"Principessa, I am in need of your assistance," Atlantis said from the walls. Teyla blinked and put down her fork, swallowing the food in her mouth with some difficulty as she looked across the table at Ronon.

"I will help if I can, Matris Arxis," she said clearly, aware everyone in the dining hall was listening. All were surprised, too, including Teyla, when two Ascended welled up from the deck and became corporeal a few steps away: Prince Shifu, the Goa'uld Ascendant, and Master Teal'c, the Jaffa Ascendant.

 _"Formerly of other worlds, but my own, now, dear one, as you are. Fifth Race Atlanteans,"_ the Mother City informed her. Teyla could feel Atlantis smile and started to rise, startled back into her seat when both Ascendants bowed deeply in her direction before politely nodding at Ronon, Radek, and Evan.

"PrincipessaTeylaEmmagen of Athos, our King has come across yet one more task he must complete and we ask for your support," Teal'c said with his usual magnificent gravitas. Teyla considered herself, if she understood the use of the term correctly, a total fangirl when it came to Teal'c. Not only had he apparently mastered the art of understanding the First Worlders, he was what Laura Cadman called 'eye candy', especially when he was working out. Teyla had been privileged to watch.

"I think we should be jealous, but I would do him, too," Radek whispered in her ear and thankfully nudged her back into the present. "If I thought he would not break me."

"How may I assist you, Master Teal'c?" she asked, unable to help her smile.

"It is my hope you will permit us to ascend you, so our Mother City may send energy to our King. Will you do us the honor of standing beside us in the Army of Light?"

Teyla caught back a gasp and turned it into a long deep breath, comforted when Evan and Radek took her hands. All she could think was, at least she'd been warned. Atlantis was alive in her mind, holding gently but letting her know the decision was hers, alone. Always. She was loved regardless, come what may.

For Teyla, who understood she would be helping John and Rodney and her City, too, there was only one possible response.

"Yes, Master Teal'c. I accept. I am honored to serve."

"Then come, filia lux lucis."

******

 _'It came to pass that our King laid his hands on my mortal remains, joined, too, he with his Empire and his Army of Light. Even as our Mother City poured forth, they who were once enslaved to the body snatchers raised up a princess in the service of our King; such remarkable powers thus were combined in my favor. After uncounted time, unknowing, unknown, here I, Benin, live to stand at the dawn of peace, my days of faith rewarded._

 _So well beloved, our King, our hope and restoration.'_

 ___Benin, Fifth Race Atlantean, Year One  
Eternus regnum nostri Regestere Charus_

***

It was, everyone agreed later, a most remarkable thing.

De-ascending, Daniel laid his hands upon the Box, with Rodney at his right shoulder, John at his back, and Jack heartside on Daniel's left; the Meredith and Imperator of Atlantis channeled the pure brilliant rush of their Principessa's willing ecstatic ascension and their City's focused energy - and with Jack to anchor him - Daniel poured it all into Benin along with some of his own, transfusing Benin's constituent molecules with the spark of life.

Which was not to say the Asgard, Nox, or Farrah Lengharis stood idly by; Thor, Lya, Antaeus, Stefania and Stefan - and the combined wills of their peoples - offered constant, grounding support, insulating and absorbing any unintentional overflow and turning it back on target.

Despite all that, Daniel was openly weeping by the time the Box moved under his hands, heart too full of awe at what was no less than a miracle to him, quantifiable energy or not. The Box's hard surface softened and turned into a shining white blob with tentacles, pulsing beneath his fingers.

Having decided how he wanted to handle this, Daniel ascended himself with Benin, requesting that his lovers remain corporeal, for now.

***

 _'Into the Empire of Light I was made welcome. I, Benin, most simple of men, became part of our King himself and his beloved. Given unto me this choice of reward; I could go home to the Source of all things or remain as one with the Fifth Race._

 _'It seemed to me there was no choice to be made; so great was my longing to serve our King. "What is your wish for me, Beloved One?" I asked he who shone before me in all his Ascended glory. "What would you have me do?"_

 _'"I want you to live free, free of the burden of your duty. I want you to live free. That is my wish for you. Live free," our King demanded with determined passion, his pure hunger for my well-being most apparent as he lent to me his understanding. Such fire in our King! Such love of justice!_

 _'"Then my choice is you, always, my King," I vowed, overcome. "Permit me to remain in your courts. I would attend you as scribe and record your days. This is all I want, all I have ever wanted."_

 _'"Scriba meus," our King acknowledged and took us from spirit to flesh, this transformation as extraordinary as the ones before it. Our King did me much honor, receiving me alone, birthing me into my skin and holding me with his own hands when I trembled. Unaccustomed as I was to human contact, I cried out, the fearful tenderness of my flesh making me weak._

 _'"It's all right," our King assured, allowing me to measure my naked flesh against his own form as he embraced me. Sore in need of his strength was I, for my knees had loosened when I beheld him, he who is our King._

 _'In all my many dreams and visions it had not been given to me to see the face of the King; I had therefore a great many imaginings. Verily, it would be fair to suggest this poor servant idled through many an afternoon's labors while pondering our King's possible likeness. In no respect am I disappointed, for our King is beautiful, as fair in his visage as in his heart. Eyes clear as the First World's sky looked on me with kindness; I was much comforted and laid my head on his wide chest._

 _'Our King smiled; I could feel it against my bald pate. He then asked what I believed at first an odd question._

 _'"You were an old man when you turned into the Box?" he inquired._

 _'"Oh, yes, my King. Old even for my kind," I promptly replied. It came to me I could sense both great relief and a fine amusement from our King and I blessed our lives of fire for this gift of knowing. '"Why do you smile, my King," I wondered still._

 _'"That's just ... good to know, Benin," he said and held my shoulders until he felt certain I could stand, then he stepped back to inspect me, his eyes bright. "I always seem to end up holding the naked old guys," he added inexplicably although it might truthfully be said that this poor servant could concentrate on nothing beyond our King's lovely smile._

 _'Our Great Mother City welcomed me then, declaring me one of hers, a Fifth Race Atlantean Ascendant. My heart swelled to fill my throat, such was my sense of being honored thus!_

 _'Our King asked me to permit him, as if it was in me to refuse him anything, then took me once more from flesh to fire, teaching me to fashion my form to the age of my choice and to dress myself in the manner of the Ascended. He selected for me robes of dark brown; to match my eyes, so our King has spoken. Also, his wish I appear before his Court the age at which I had first revealed myself to him. A favor, he said._

 _'"Your favor is mine, my King," I said. I, Benin, so sworn.'_

 ___Benin, Fifth Race Atlantean, Year One  
Eternus regnum nostri Regestere Charus_

***

 **epilogue ... six months later...**

"So, about the big state dinner tonight," Rodney began, smirking at Daniel, who actually blushed. Daniel was feeling a complicated mixture of justifiable pride plus a really snide 'nah-nah nah-nah-nah' sense of satisfaction; he was was ashamed of that side of himself but there it was. Daniel trusted Rodney to _see_ him; Rodney would never think less of him for being petty.

He shouldn't. Rodney understood petty.

"It's not every day we welcome Presidents and Prime Ministers to our table," he smirked at Daniel until Daniel smirked back, then Rodney nudged Daniel's shoulder with his own, glad they'd carved out time to watch the sunset together from the pier.

"I'm glad we came back here," Rodney added, watching the surface of Lantea's ocean turn orange and red, reflecting the lowering sun. "We needed a break."

Decontaminating and disarming the fucking Genii homeworld had taken months. Ungrateful bastards. They'd treated the sickest for their radiation exposure and left diagnosis and treatment recommendations for the cancer victims in their society - there were more than a few - but that was all the Genii would permit. They had no desire to become part of the Empire, which was fine with Rodney. He didn't want the Genii right back. John felt the same way.

Daniel ended up telling the Genii they were welcome to open trade with any Empire world that cared to trade with them - except for weapons, of course - but the first time a Genii citizen hurt a citizen of the Atlantean Empire would be the last time. They would be monitored by an Ascended, Nox, Farrah Lengharis, or Asgard whether they liked it or not. Naturally, the Genii didn't, but there wasn't much they could do about it short of burying their own stargate.

That option was submitted.

There were days when Rodney - and John - wished more than anything that Acastus Kolya was still alive just so they could ascend in front of him and ask - with thunder and lightning - who the fuck did he think the City of the Ancestors should belong to now?

Remaining Pegasus galaxy civilizations had received information transmitted in databursts similar to the ones Atlantis had delivered through the SGC's 'gate. She'd talked Radek, Rodney, Samantha Carter, Thor, and Orlin into writing a program that enabled her to forward transmissions through the entire stargate network. If there was a working planetary gate, a search was done for available radio, cellular, or video-electronic signals. Those were then intercepted and Atlantis' messages delivered; any civilization that had any technological capability at all was informed the Wraith were no more.

Since Daniel had about eleventy-billion people dying to do him a favor, he'd asked for emissaries willing to be sent to every single world with any kind of civilization on it, so everyone possible could be informed they no longer had to live in fear of cullings.

This proved to be rather popular duty, and along with other Pegasus galaxy business, had kept them all occupied and pre-occupied. Consequently, until recently, the Fifth Race Atlanteans - or, Daniel's Court, as Daniel's little scribe liked to call them; Rodney rather adored Benin's term - had all largely ignored Earth.

To no one's surprise, Earth - or, Stargate Command - wouldn't stand for being ignored. Negotiations had begun between Atlantis and the Hayes White House, with Master Teal'c and Stefan Catalin as self-proclaimed Ministers of State intent on representing their King's best interests.

Teal'c had brought Daniel to giggles with that particular declaration; Rodney still grinned like a fool every time he remembered Teal'c's broad, answering smile. Daniel still had no idea how much better he made people feel just by being around them and Rodney still wanted to shake Daniel sometimes for not _getting it_ , not getting how much he meant to his loved ones, of whom a grateful Rodney counted himself one.

Stef - Jack's nickname stuck, of course - and Teal'c had advanced diplomatic relations to such an extent that heads of state on earth were now openly - publically, amazingly - demonstrating the use of the Stargate for their peoples and disseminated news of its 'discovery' in Antarctica. Life on other planets had been confirmed, as well as in other galaxies, and a peaceful intergalactic Empire had been explained, along with how there really was a City of Atlantis and anyone could go through the 'gate and come back should they want to visit.

Of course, trips to Antarctica were not undertaken by the faint-hearted and were naturally limited by winter darkness and the vagaries of weather, which suited Rodney right down to the ... hmm, ground. So to speak. Right down to the City's superstructure?

Distracted when Daniel snickered at him, Rodney looked into those beautiful blue eyes and knew his King had been listening in on his idle thoughts.

 _"Admit it, you were as surprised as I was when the Tok'ra showed up and made tunnels from Amundsen, Vostok and Concordia."_

 _"Yes, yes, I was,"_ Rodney admitted. The Tok'ra had respectfully requested an audience with the King afterwards and had been welcomed into the Empire ... despite Jack O'Neill's misgivings, not that Rodney disagreed, which is why he'd informed the Tok'ra they too would be watched. Daniel was still a little aggravated about that but for once, Rodney didn't care. Much.

"So, still having fun?" he asked Daniel, covering Daniel's hand on the rail with his own and twining their fingers together. Daniel's hand was cold. _"Don't tell me you're scared."_

 _"Not ... scared ... exactly, just..."_

 _"Scared."_

 _"Rodney-"_

 _"Explain, why, exactly?"_

 _"It's more like ... stage fright."_

 _"Yeah, sweetheart, keep telling yourself that. You're worried about how to act? Just be you."_

 _"They don't want me, they want the King."_

 _"You are the King."_

 _"You know what I mean."_

 _"Yeah, I do. So, Daniel, be the King."_

 _"You're right."_

 _"Ah, my two favorite words,"_ Rodney confided as they ascended to go somewhere more private. They had a few hours to kill that he could use to properly relax Daniel.

***

"Doesn't that _bother_ you?" Jack asked out of nowhere, without moving anything but his lips, near as John could tell. Jack was sprawled back in one of the chairs bolted to the deck of the boat - well, small yacht, really - that Rodney had gotten John "as a wedding present." John and Jack were floating a few miles out from Atlantis. They'd spent the day pretending to fish but mostly just drinking beer and soaking up the sun.

John was still absolutely enthralled with his boat. She was perfect and he loved her. His exquisite handmade wooden Gibbs sailboat was fitted with an Asgard engine guaranteed to never fail. She was fully equipped for ocean navigation and fishing and had Atlantis' marine biologists' seal of approval making sure she was ocean-safe and sail-worthy before Rodney ever gave her to John. Despite knowing perfectly well John himself would be in no danger whatsoever, Rodney made it safe for John's sake anyway, knowing John would want it that way on general principles and for the safety of any future mortal passengers.

Every time he thought about how well Rodney knew him and how much Rodney loved him, John felt all warm and gooey inside. It was ridiculous, and it pretty much rocked.

"You asked me this already. The question is, why does it bother you when Rodney and Daniel go off together?"

 _"'Go off together'. You mean, go off and fuck."_ John couldn't actually hear Jack growling, but he could feel it rumble along his spine anyway.

 _"You're acting like a dog with a bone. Why? Daniel loves you."_ Not for the first time, John was grateful for the ability to think his words instead of saying them. Some of this shit he'd never speak out loud ... except to Rodney, maybe. He was working on that.

 _"Daniel fucking loves everybody, haven't you noticed? McKay and you and Shifu and Teal'c and Carter and Janet and Lya and Stefania and Teyla and everybody he fucking meets and Benin, too,"_ Jack thought at him in a sour tone.

 _"You want my advice, you'll get over yourself. Don't be so selfish. Support Daniel having whatever he needs. And yeah, maybe that's just enlightened self-interest because sometimes he needs me. So, the answer to your question is no, it doesn't bother me, because Rodney's coming back to me sooner or later, because he'll want to. And if I'm lucky he'll bring Daniel with him."_

"You're an asshole, Sheppard."

"Yeah, Sir, it's been said," John replied complacently, fishing another beer out of the cooler, sprawling back in his captain's chair - and how cool was that? - as he spread his legs. Wide. "Anyway, who says they get to have all the fun?" he asked, opening the bottle and going down on the icy neck before taking a drink, throwing back his head so Jack could watch his adam's apple moving and get the full effect.

***

"Fuck," Jack said appreciatively, very much affected. John Sheppard was hotter than hell, there was no denying. Jack's cock stirred in his shorts; he was still trying to get used to the self-knowledge that he could get turned on by a good-looking man, it wasn't just Daniel, and yeah, he, Jack O'Neill, really was most sincerely gay, or at least, bisexual. John was getting hard, too, baggy shorts tenting while John regarded Jack from beneath heavy-lidded eyes, rubbing the mouth of his beer bottle over his bottom lip.

"You could sell tickets," Jack informed John, shamelessly reaching under his jeans to adjust himself. "Hey, feel free to be seventeen years old again," he added, ascending just enough to alter his body to what he remembered. "I was seventeen once."

He got rid of his shirt while he was at it, wearing only the cut-off shorts he remembered from the summer before his last year of high school. The denim fabric was worn down to mere white strings in places and barely clung together in areas over his thighs and ass. A girlfriend had told him they were waiting for motivated fingers - and his mother had thrown them away the last time she caught him wearing them, Jack recalled with a grin.

"Wow, love the hair, Jack," John remarked, changing in front of Jack's eyes until John had his 'jailbait' look perfected, only naked, and none too concerned about it, apparently, judging from the way he was stalking Jack. "You're really working that mullet."

"Hey, it was the style," Jack defended, glad when John was finally close enough for him to bury his fingers in John's own longish hair. Jack still regretted not having done the same with Daniel's before Daniel started keeping his short. Jack had denied himself too fucking much, and denied Daniel, too, while he was at it. Maybe John was right and he should just get over that part of him that griped about sharing. Sharing was looking pretty goddamned attractive right now.

"Did your dad freak out about yours, too?" he asked, tugging at a silky handful.

"Fuck, yeah," John agreed, hazel eyes bright and laughing. "What'd yours do?"

"He came home on leave and dragged me to his barber the next day. Looked like a Marine when I went into my senior year," Jack confided, using his grip on John's hair to bring him closer. "You're a fucking pretty boy, Sheppard."

"You're not so bad yourself, O'Neill. Hey, I want to try something. Don't freak out."

 _"Oh, shit,"_ Jack naturally thought. "I'll have famous last words for five hundred, Alex," he said when John pushed him onto the bench seat and climbed fearlessly into his lap.

"Funny," John said sincerely and changed right there on top of him, turning from hard lean teenaged boy into a firm, slender teenage girl, small round breasts only inches from Jack's mouth. John's hands tightened on Jack's shoulders and Jack slid his hands down John's long, smooth back before filling his hands full of tight curvy ass.

"I'm going to hell. Thanks for the ride," Jack decided.

"You're welcome." John's mind reached into Jack's and gave reasons for wanting this, in case knowing would mitigate the crawly feeling Jack had along his spine for liking it. He wasn't seventeen in his head, after all, but then, neither was John. John told him a story about the crappy first time he'd given a girl in high school and Jack could feel John's lingering regret and shame.

 _"Tell me you don't want me to hurt you. I can't do that,"_ Jack begged, hoping John didn't want to be punished or something. John's face turned red and his- no, her eyes watered.

 _"No! I don't want to be hurt. It's not like that. I want-"_ John's thoughts stuttered and Jack could feel her embarrassment. Jack found he didn't like what it represented, John's fear of Jack's potential reaction. He wanted John to trust him, Jack realized.

Wanting to be somebody John Sheppard could trust carried a lot of weight.

 _What do you want? You can tell me. I won't use it against you. I won't hurt you with it. My word of honor, John,"_ Jack didn't mind promising, as always, finding it easier to think the words rather than say them out loud.

 _"I want a better idea of how it should have been." 'What I did wrong'_ was completely unspoken but might as well have been spoken aloud; it was as clear as John's wish to improve his mental association with first times, and maybe, somehow, feel a little bit cleaner about the whole incident. Comforted. Forgiven.

Jack found himself sitting up, swinging John's lovely naked body up into his arms and carrying her to the bed in the boat's cabin, oddly pleased when John's arms and legs closed around him automatically. God, the way those pert young breasts felt pressed into his chest...

 _"Wow, no wonder women like this so much. It feels..."_ John hesitated again.

 _"Come on, I'm not going to think less of you if you say something sappy. It's romantic, am I right?"_ Jack teased, pleased when John stopped feeling so wary and started feeling a lot happier. "You are gorgeous," Jack added out loud, laying John out over the mattress and kneeling beside her, so he could look. And touch. "How's that for romantic, and it's even the truth. Jesus, Sheppard, your father should thank God every day you weren't born a girl."

 _"Instead, he pretty much cursed God every day that I was born at all,"_ John thought and Jack literally felt his heart seize in his chest at the notion.

"Then he was a stupid goddamned bastard. You're a man any half-way decent father would be proud of."

Jack watched John's mouth twitch and snorted before he could help himself, both daring the other to just say it.

"Well, maybe not so much at the moment," John murmured just before she started giggling - Jack would say like a little girl, but that would be politically incorrect despite its current accuracy - then Jack was laughing right along with her, kind of in love with the way John's entire face lit up.

"You are absolutely beautiful," he said as her giggles turned into a smile that made his eyes prickle just a little. John looked at him a little solemnly, one hand on his leg and the other tucked under her head, hidden in the tumbled fall of John's long black hair. "No matter what form you take."

"Wow." John simply beamed at him. "That? Was romantic."

Jack startled them both when he blushed.

***

 _"We shouldn't be watching."_

 _"John wants us to watch."_

 _"But Jack-"_

 _"Come on, sweetheart, you've trusted John this far with your Jack. Trust him all the way."_

 _"You really mean that. You aren't mad at John anymore."_

 _"No, and you aren't mad at Jack, either, but you've been scared to look too close at the subject and haven't noticed yet."_

 _"Damnit, Rodney."_

 _"I know, my King. Always telling you what you don't want to hear."_

 _"Always telling me the truth, you mean, my Meredith. Don't be sorry."_

 _"My truth, anyway."_

 _"Have I thanked you lately?"_

 _"Every day. You can stop now."_

 _"John's so open, so willing to put himself out there..."_

 _"He's a daredevil, he loves to push the boundaries. Jack's trying, Daniel. He is. Watch, come on. He's being so wonderfully sweet, kissing John like he-"_

 _"She."_

 _"-yes, fine, she. Kissing John like she really is a seventeen year old virgin girl. Jack's being so gentle and wow, John's getting into it, rolling her hips, chasing after Jack's mouth when he tries to pull his head back to breathe."_

 _"Rodney. Show me. God, they are beautiful."_

 _"I know. She's so tan and he's so fair ... oh, Jack has nice hands. Watch him touch her, just like this, Daniel. Let me stroke your neck, your arms, just because your skin is so soft. You're so beautiful. Love to touch your chest and watch your nipples get hard. So pretty. Look how you tighten up for me, begging me to touch. Pinch. Suck."_

 _"Oh, god, yes, Rodney, like that- guh! Bite me again. Mark me ... ahh ... oh, John's moaning, look how she's pushing herself into Jack's mouth. I'm so glad he's making it good, Rodney. He's good. Like you. Proud of him."_

 _"Then you should tell him, sweetheart. God you feel so good in my mouth, that's right, hold my head and fuck me, Daniel, love when you do it hard."_

 _"Oh, oh, oh my fucking GOD love ... you ... just ... like ... this! Oh, Rodney. Thank you. So good."_

 _"Mmm, thank you. Now, turn over, my King. I'm not finished with you."_

 _"Thank god for that."_

***

Daniel might be the King, but Rodney McKay was the Meredith of Atlantis. Daniel rather adored that.

And Daniel adored losing himself in his physical senses, shaken out of his head when Rodney flipped him over. Hands on his ass curled him up and Rodney's tongue plunged into him with no warning; Daniel howled, the sensation screaming throughout his entire body until he was writhing with it, deep shocks of pleasure bursting out of him in low, raw wails.

Even so, Daniel wasn't lost to the irony of it all. No one manhandled Daniel like this but Rodney McKay. Not that Jack didn't fuck him - Jack did, and quite well if not often. Loving, passionate, tender, respectful perfect sex which Daniel did enjoy. Loved Jack for. Could not possibly be _angry_ about - but Jack never _topped_ Daniel any more and Daniel missed that.

Sucking in his breath, Daniel cursed when Rodney yanked his balls down and thought a soft leather ring in place above them, frustrating the climax that had been hovering just within Daniel's reach.

"You bastard," he accused to Rodney's open laughter. God, he loved that look on Rodney's face, happy, open, pleased.

"Yes, yes, I am, thank you," Rodney replied, all smug laughter when Daniel gasped; his ass was suddenly full of liquid warmth, lube beamed in courtesy of Atlantis on her Meredith's order. Daniel was always startled mostly by his own reaction - it was never going to be something he could get used to, but it got him hot, wanton, horny and dying to be fucked. Every. Single. Time. - and Rodney wasted no time taking advantage, thumbs rubbing back and forth across Daniel's anus until Daniel was squirming and panting for more. Rodney obliged him, fingering him until fingers just weren't enough; Daniel only realized he was begging when Rodney's cock pushed into him and took his breath away, rendering him briefly silent.

"Oh, my god, this never gets old," Rodney prayed, fucking Daniel in short hard thrusts that kept prodding Daniel's prostate and killing him with dizzying bursts of rapture. It was hard to remain corporeal, but Rodney held him there, too, tied to his physical body, wracked with such pleasure he was almost seizing with it, blinded and deafened. Rodney's big hands gripped his hips and pushed and pulled and _used_ him; Daniel sucked in a loud shriek of air and pleaded with Rodney to let him come. Let him finish. Let him fall.

 _"pleaserodneypleaserodneypleasepleaseplease"_

"Anything for you, my King," Rodney swore and fucked Daniel onto his dick, aiming for Daniel's prostate like he could see it. Maybe he could. Daniel didn't particularly care to consider Atlantis might be pointing it out so he avoided that subject in favor of giving a harsh groan as his body overtook his thoughts. The scrotal restraint disappeared and Daniel's impending climax came bearing down on him like a naquadah asteroid, so intensely _there_ he was almost afraid for his heart. His aching balls drew up tight and Rodney's large hand closed around Daniel's dick, squeezing, grounding him - yet at the same time, igniting him, freeing him to explode. It was a marvelous paradox Daniel knew he'd never tire of trying to explore.

Things ... rippled. What felt like a bomb detonated in Daniel's balls. He couldn't help the noises coming out of his mouth, hoarse screams full of disbelieving ecstasy. Shredding apart, he couldn't stop himself. Rodney rocked into each clenching spasm and somehow multiplied his pleasure until Daniel was nothing but white light and throbbing rapture, so soul-deep and wrenching he found himself sobbing as it passed.

"Shh, shh, it's all right, sweetheart," Rodney comforted before pulling slowly out of Daniel, who was finally able to quiet. _"You okay? Because I'm still not finished with you yet."_

 _"I love you."_ Daniel thought at Rodney hopefully.

"Yes, you do," Rodney replied with a smug grin, turning Daniel over and unceremoniously positioning him ass high for a thorough felching. _"Give me time. Give Jack time. We have plenty of it."_

 _"Yes, RodNEY_ YES!"

The next time Daniel Jackson de-ascended, he was on Atlantis, safe in the arms of his best friend.

***

The End, probably

It's become apparent to me that this is a never-ending story. I keep thinking I'm done with it then more scenes pop into my head and start demanding writing time. I say this is the end, more or less, which would make this the sec- uh, third time I've decided I'm done. We'll see. There are *still* scenes on which I'd like to expand.

As always, feel free to point out flagrant typo/punctuation/grammar abuse.

2-04-11  
WC: 47,000-ish (this part), 41,000 (first part)


End file.
